Unpaid Salaries: Kogi Workers Reduced to Mere Skeletons Walking Without Hope – NLC

Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Thursday said it was sad that in spite of the over 200 billion so far collected as monthly allocations and several bailouts and loan collected, Kogi State government is still owing workers between 8 – 38 months salary arrears.

NLC said owing to this development, workers in the state had been acutely battered and reduced to mere skeleton walking the street without hope or succour.

The NLC chairman, Comrade Onuh Edoka made this declaration in Lokoja during the 7thQuadrennial State Congress held at the Kafas Multipurpose hall, Lokoja.

The organised labour said due to the non-payment of salaries, the workers had been turned to beggars with some suffering from various ailments which had resulted in several deaths.

The worst hit among the workers, NLC said was the local government staff some of who were owed over 52 months salaries arrears while those paid were paid in miserable percentages while some pensioners were also dying in hunger and starvation.

In addition, the chairman regretted that workers are being owed their leave bonuses, while promotion carried out by the government are not being cash backed, saying that such promotions only existed on papers.

He described the local government workers, who are being paid ridiculous percentage salaries spanning several years, as worst hit. He lamented that the Ministry of Local Government has become a Government of its own.

While painting a pathetic story of Pensioners in the state, Edoka noted that despite the fact that these retirees do not collect their Pensions regularly, some of them are not even placed on Pension months and in some cases over one year after retirement.

While appealing to the state government to pay more attention to the welfare of workers in the state, Edoka said that the screening exercise though, desirable, was responsible for the accumulation of backlogs of salary.

Edoka therefore called on the Federal Government to release the balance of 30.8 billion bailout fund to enable the government to defray the salary arrears owed to workers in the state.

In his response, the Governor promised to continue to prioritize the welfare of workers in the state, even as he said that the balance of the bailout fund would be used for payment of salaries only, when released by the federal government.

The governor who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Chief Edward Onoja, commended the workers for their support to his administration in the trying period.

According to the Governor, the screening exercise, though painful, has recorded positive results as unintended beneficiaries have been eliminated from pay rolls of the state, saying that as painful as surgical operations are, they have to be carried out in order to save the life of patients.

He listed other achievements of his administration to include : improved security of lives and property, saying that kidnapping and other Violent crimes have been reduced to the barest minimum.

Other achievements according to the Governor includes, robust healthcare delivery, qualitative education, huge investments in critical infrastructural development across the three senatorial districts of Kogi state.
Highlights of the occasion was the election of officials to run the affairs of the union for the next four years.

Comrade Onuh Edoka and his team were returned unopposed for another four year term of office, even as the workers passed a vote of confidence on them for purposeful leadership.