Industrial unions in Kwara on Monday in Ilorin suspended the two-month old strike embarked upon to press for payment of workers' salaries.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the strike commenced in December 2015.

The suspension is contained in a communiqué issued after an emergency meeting of NLC, TUC and the Joint Negotiation Committee (JNC) on Friday, Feb. 5.

The communique made available to newsmen on Monday was signed by representatives of the unions which include the NLC, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU).

Others are Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC).

The unions said that they have observed a decline in the monthly Federal Allocations to states.

They said this had grossly affected effective and prompt payment of salaries to workers in the local governments.

They said that they are mindful of the fact that children had stayed out of school for a very long time, which has affected negatively their academic and even social life.

The unions said they have also scrutinised the effort of the Kwara Government and realised that "it has put machineries in place to ensure that workers' salaries and arrears in the local government system were paid." The unions also suspended the strike based on the promise made by Senate President Bukola Saraki.

"We considered the promise made by the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, to facilitate the release of the bail-out fund to local government councils."

The unions called on the state government to reciprocate the gesture by ensuring that no staff of local government was victimised or intimidated as a result of the strike.

They expressed appreciation to Gov. Abdulfatah Ahmed, the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki and other stakeholders for their unflinching support during the cause of the struggle. (NAN)