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About seven thousand workers said they have never received any salary since Bello assumed office early last year. They are calling on President Muhammad Buhari to come to their rescue before some of them would decide to ground activities in the state. About seven thousand workers in Kogi State have cried out to the government to come to their aid as they have not been paid salaries for several months.
Some of the workers were recruited by the state government in 2007 before Bello dreamt of politics as hospital cleaners, security men, drivers, record keepers, laboratory and theatre attendants and that he shouldn’t have termed them as ghost workers.
Speaking in Lokoja, the State Headquarter, on Monday, January 2, the angry workers said none of them has been paid since they were employed.
Mallam Usman Seidu, who spoke for the aggrieved workers, explained that they had lodged a complaint before the state ministry of Health and a committee was set up.
He reportedly said: “We were screened by a committee which retrieved our permanent and pensionable employment letters and replaced it with temporary appointment.
We were given personal subhead number with the assurance that we would be captured in December salary, but report reaching us is that the voucher of December salary to be paid next week did not include us.
We want President Muhammad Buhari to intervene in this matter to end our sufferings as we are aware that we were captured in the bail out money collected by the state government.
While warning that the angry workers could ground activities of government in the state, he said: “Former Councillors are being paid while we are being ignored; government needs to know that if we go on strike there will be no work in the hospitals. If we don’t work, there will be no admission in hospitals and a lot of lives will be send to their early graves.
Also speaking on condition of anonymity, a comrade explained that the committee set up to verify them created more confusion by omitting the names of two thousand people and adding other new names to the list.
He said: “We are seven thousand but the committee after the screening omitted the names of two thousand people and again went ahead to submit the list of 998 people creating more confusion as the commissioner of Health refused to sign leading to the setting up of another committee to look into the complaint.”
The report quoted a source in the state ministry of Health as saying the ministry had done the needful and that they would soon be paid.
– Alfa Tijani writes from Ajaka, Igalamela LGA of Kogi State. An Ardent Fan of APC in the Last General Elections. I am not a Sycophant or Worshipper of Power Anywhere.
I can be reached on : hon.tijanialfa@gmail.com
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