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Kogi State government Sunday confirmed it has received N20 billion out of the N50 billion bailout funds approved for it by the federal government to offset outstanding salaries owed workers in the state.
Governor Yahaya Bello, who confirmed this during the occasion of this year’s Workers’ Day celebration, expressed his determination to ensure the fund is efficiently disbursed to offset outstanding salaries and emoluments of workers.
He blamed the delay in the release of the fund on the last administration, saying that the application submitted by his predecessor was shoddily done and fraught with irregularities.
“We had to start from scratch. We are glad to announce that our efforts have paid off. This week, we received approval to draw down on the first tranche of our Bailout Funds from the Federal Government.
“This will amount to about N20 billion. We will draw down on the balance of about N30 billion as we meet the milestones for implementation of the first tranche, as set by the Central Bank of Nigeria,“ he explained.
While assuring all workers in the state of better days, governor Bello called on the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Kogi State University to call off its ongoing strike action to enable students continue their studies.
Bello, who said his administration was determined to stamp out ‘ghost workers’ from the payroll of the state government, charged all genuine workers to ensure they present themselves for the ongoing screening exercise.
“No more will people sit in Pay Offices and fabricate thousands of names, add them to the nominal roll and siphon Kogi State resources with them on a monthly basis. No more will people sit down in Lagos, Abuja, even abroad, and receive bank alerts for salaries from the Kogi State Government.
“No more will Kogi State pay salaries to ghost-workers who are ‘serving’ in non-existing institutions discovered all over the state by the Screening Committee. We are dismantling all of that satanic infrastructure. Our people will no longer be robbed”, he said.
The governor on the occasion donated two buses to the Kogi State Chapters of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to assist the unions in their operations.
Earlier, State Chairman Nigeria of Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Onuh Edoka, said workers in the state were going through ‘trying times’ and urged the state government to conclude the ongoing screening exercise and punish those found culpable.
The organised Labour demanded for payment of 27.5% Specific Teachers’ Allowance for secondary school teachers just as it called for improved welfare for workers in some sectors of the state to ensure better service delivery.
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