The Kwara State Government said it had not received the N5 billion the Federal Government pledged to ensure the payment of local government workers' salary and pension arrears.

Muideen Akorede, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Communication, said although the state had paid arrears owed to state workers with its bailout loan from the Federal Government, that of the local governments was yet to be released by the Federal Government.

"Although the August allocation has been released to the local government councils, the fund is inadequate to pay salary of local government workers. The state government is therefore augmenting the allocation with N800 million to enable the local government councils pay workers," said Akorede.

He assured that the N800 million augmentation will be finalised by next Thursday and the August salary will be paid within the week while government awaits the bailout fund from the Federal Government.

"The state government therefore emphasises with the affected local government workers and calls for their understanding as all necessary machinery has been put in place to pay the existing arrears and prevent a re-occurrence," said Akorede.