Kogi State chapter of Organised Labour has disclosed that the last Paris Club Refund and the latest Bailouts Fund of N30.8billion received by the state governor were judiciously utilised.
According to a press statement issued and signed by the state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress Onuh Edoka and his counterpart Ranti Ojo of the Trade Union Congress and made available to newsmen on Friday in Lokoja, the funds were disbursed in accordance with provisions of the collective agreements between Labour and the state government which prioritised payment of salaries and pensions above all other competing demands.
Labour declared the current standing of the salary situation in the state, saying, “As at today, the general position is that most workers have been paid up to October, 2019 at state level.
However, they held that Local Government staff, primary schools teachers and pensioners were still expecting their October 2019 salary and pension.
The statement added, “We also wish to acknowledge the early payment of salary/pension in recent times. It is our hope that this gesture of prompt payment of salary will continue even after the November 16”, governorship election.
“It is however, important to remind the government that many workers still have arrears in their payment history due to issues arising from the screening which threw them out of the workforce.
“We call on the governor who granted clemency to some categories of workers to urgently find a means of paying them the months that their salaries were withheld while they were sorting themselves out and updating their records”.
The organised Labour also disclosed that the Governor Yahaya Bello’s Staff Screening and Verification Exercise was necessary, though it brought untold hardship on the workers in its wake.
“After in-depth analysis of the entire process up till this moment, we also agree that many components of the Civil Service and Pensions Reforms undertaken by this administration were not only necessary but vitally important to the building of an efficient, effective and virile Civil Service,” it said.
VICTORIA NNAKAIKE, LOKOJA
