The Edo State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has accused the 18 local government councils in the state of allegedly owing its members over N 4,295,828,643.53billion.
Lazarus Imokhai Adorolo, the state president of the union made the allegation during a chat with newsmen in Benin City.
Adorolo, however, called on the state government and Heads of Local Government Administration of the 18 Councils in the state to, as a matter of urgency, commence the payment of various months salary arrears and other deductions owed the council workers.
“Based on our compilations and findings, the eighteen Local Government Councils are owing workers the sum of four billion, two hundred and ninety-five million, eight hundred and twenty-eight thousand, six hundred and fourty-three naira, fifty-three kobo(4,295,828,643.53).
“Our expectations were that as the allocation improves, there ought to be corresponding improvement in the payment of outstanding salary arrears and outstanding deductions.
“Instead, some have managed to pay one year and half, others have only paid half while some have only paid a percentage of one month. A situation that is worrisome. If we cannot help ourselves, who will help us?”He asked.
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He noted that the council workers are downcast in the State as a result of the non-payment of salaries, outstanding salaries arrears and other deductions from salaries which also run into millions of naira.
He also alleged that the councils are indebted to NULGE as deductible arrears to the tune of over N89 million while those of NHF, COOPERATIVE, NACHP, NANNM etc also are in millions of Naira.
The NULGE state president opined that with the proceeds from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) shared for the month of October,2021, there is no reason for the Councils’ supposed inability to commence offsetting the arrears except otherwise that is unknown to them.
According to him, we know that in recent times, the allocation to councils is improving while their expenditure has dropped as there are no political office holders presently whose bills would have eaten deep into the revenue, so why are they not paying now?
“Is there something that someone is not telling us as a union? We expect constant interaction so that we can all be on the same page before the continuous harmony eludes us as the union leadership is under serious pressure to take the bull by the horn”, he queried.
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