Kaduna blames LGs for unpaid May salaries

The Kaduna State Government on Friday denied owing salaries of local government workers.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the government was reacting to a declaration by the state chapter of National Union of Local Government Employees directing its members not to accept their May salary.

The President of the union, Jabiru Danlami, had in a statement on Thursday attributed the action to the failure of government to capture all local government staff on its payroll.

However, Abubakar Saminaka, spokesman for the Ministry of Local Government Affairs, said the state government has no hand in whatever discrepancies were noticed by the union.

According to Saminaka, funds meant for the 23 local government councils have been remitted to them.

He said: “The ministry’s primary assignment is to supervise the activities of the the local government councils and not allocation of funds.

“Our main concern is to ensure that all funds given to local governments are properly utilized.”

Saminaka advised officials of the union to meet officials of the affected local councils to address the problem.

He promised that the state government would not compromise the welfare of its workers.

The spokesman, however, agreed that the situation might have been as a result of low revenue and a bloated workforce.

He said: “Last month, we had the least allocation from the Federation Account since the last three years.

“That is why some local governments could not meet up to pay their workers salaries.”

Saminaka advised local councils in the state to improve on their internally generated revenue so as to meet up with their demand.

Meanwhile, the NULGE Secretary in the state, Fidelis Womboh, said the union has withdrawn the directive stopping its members from collecting their May salaries.

Womboh told NAN on Friday that they had met and agreed with officials of the government on measures to take in places where such infraction occurred.

Womboh said it was agreed that any local council that is unable to pay all its workers should write to the local government affairs ministry for support.

NAN.