The organised labour in Kogi
state, on Wednesday, told Yahaya Bello, the state governor, that his
administration owed workers eight to 39-month salary arrears.
Onu Edoka, the state chairman of
the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), disclosed this in Lokoja, during an
emergency meeting between the governor and the leaders of the organised labour.
The meeting, which was at the
instance of the government, took place at the governor’s office.
Edoka, who took exception to
recent media reports quoting the governor as saying that he was not owing
workers a dime, insisted that the state government was heavily indebted to
workers.
“We wish to unequivocally state
that His Excellency’s administration owes Kogi workers and pensioners heavily
in terms of salaries, pensions and other entitlements,” he said.
“We are more bewildered by the
fact that at one time the government accepts the fact of her heavy indebtness
to workers, and at another time the denial card is played.”
He reminded Bello that as at the
time he came into office on January 27, 2016, the workers were being owed three
months salary and pension arrears.
According to him, Bello’s
administration received the allocation for January 2016, thereby putting the
responsibility of payment of salary of that month on him, and not the previous
administration.
“You claimed to have spent the
N20 billion bailout fund on payment of salary and pensions, but your refusal to
utilise several years of monthly allocations for the same purpose gave room to
the present backlog of salary and pensions,” Edoka said.
“As at today, the outstanding
salaries and pensions arrears are in six different categories, ranging from
eight months to 39 months.
”Apart from salaries, the current
administration has not paid any leave bonus since inception. The implication is
that leave bonuses for 2016, 2017 and 2018 are outstanding against this
government.”
He insisted that there was no
moral justification for Bello not to pay salary and pensions having accessed
bailout funds which were meant for that purpose, in addition to several
tranches of Paris Club refund.
“There is therefore a moral
burden on his His Excellency to explain to the people of the state what his
government did with all the refunds, the monthly allocations and internally
generated revenue running into hundreds of billions of naira, since inception
of this administration,” he said.
“We challenge the state
government to a live debate on these issues on any national television.”
He charged the governor to drop
the denial game, urging him to commence payment of the outstanding salary and
pension arrears immediately, to prevent further death, sickness and other
deprivations facing the people under his watch.
Bello, who was rattled by the
submissions of the labour, promised to work out modalities for the payment of
the outstanding salary arrears and pensions.
He explained that his
administration had, within limited resources, done its best to develop the
state and improve upon citizens welfare.
The governor then asked for the
support of the organised labour so that he could deliver more dividends of
democracy.
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