By Oyibo Salihu
Lokoja
The organised labour in Kogi state yesterday accused the state government of reneging on all the agreements entered into with the government before the suspension of the industrial action in November 2017.
The state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Onuh Edoka and his Trade Union Congress (TUC) counterpart, Comrade Ranti Ojo stated this in a joint statement in Lokoja.
The duo also expressed shock on the statement credited to the state government that it has cleared salary arrears owed to civil servants up to December, 2017.
According to them, the available record shows that government unilaterally paid 60 and 40 per cent salaries to the state and local government workers from August to December, 2017.
They said that the arrears due to some staff owed between 6 to 22 months before August 2017 were still hanging and wondered why the state government would engage in such a misleading statement that all workers had been paid up to date.
The organised labour also expressed shock at the pronouncement of the governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello that the government borrowed a whopping N10 billion to pay salary arrears when it is evident that the state government collected over N6 billion Paris Club refund in addition to the monthly allocations of October and November 2017, adding that the three sums, ordinarily could have been enough to pay full salary to all categories of staff, going by the wage bill of N2.6 billion presented by the state government.
The union leaders therefore described the governor’s pronouncement that workers had been paid up to December 2017 as a mere political statement that could not be justified.
They therefore urged government to urgently look into the November 2017 agreements with a view to implementing them so that industrial harmony could prevail in the state.
