Date: 2016-12-19

The Kwara State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), last night confirmed that accounts of all councils in the state have been credited from the Paris Club refund released last week.

Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed last week approved the release of one billion naira for the payment of local government salaries from the fund.

Ahmed through a statement from the Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Demola Banu confirmed that the state received five billion naira from the federal government out of the fund.

Following discordant tunes that trailed the decision, the Kwara State House of Assembly directed that the entire amount be used to clear backlog of salaries instead of using part of it to fund other projects.

According to Comrade Abayomi, while speaking with National Pilot on the issue, the payment was made on Friday and the affected workers have started receiving bank alerts.

He added that the released fund was only for augmentation and not for payment of backlogs. Abayomi said the Governor has promised to clear the backlog of affected workers by March next year and they will hold him to that promise.

"The money released is meant to augment our salaries for November and December and not to clear the backlog.

"The payment was made on Friday by 3pm and they started alerting local government workers by 4pm. We are waiting for reports of each local government as regards the payment now.

"We can only get the effect of the money and the payment on Monday. N600m is used to augment November salaries and N800m for December. That means out of the NI billion, after the November augmentation, the remaining fund might not be enough if the state allocation returned low", he added.

He said that workers are still being owed over 8 months and 20 per cent salaries adding that the governor has already promised to clear all "our arrears by March and we are still standing on that promise. So this release is just augmentation".