Kogi workers celebrate as Governor Yahaya Bello clears salary arrears

Civil servants in Kogi are in a state of euphoria as all outstanding salary arrears in the state have been cleared by Governor Yahaya Bello.

According to Leadership, workers disclosed that they had received the entire five months salaries owed by the Kogi State Government, and expressed joy over the development.

TopNaija gathers that traditional leaders and stakeholders in the state had been assured by Bello, that all salary arrears would be cleared by his administration before the end of July. When contacted, the state’s finance commissioner, Asiwaju Idris Ashiru, said the decision to stick to the agreement of paying the salary arrears was paramount to the governor.

According to Ashiru, the move was more welfarist than political. He said: “The governor was the main driver that ensured we were able to get the bailout. And he directed that it must be applied to clear arrears of salaries. “The decision was in line with the commitment of the Yahaya Bello administration to ensure the welfare of the workers. It was not due to political exigencies.

“We also thank Mr President, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria for the roles in ensuring that was achieved. “Going forward , the governor has directed that we do everything possible to ensure we do not owe our workers again. What we paid now was part of the liabilities inherited from the past administration. “But government is a continuum and we have done what is needful to retain the confidence of our workforce in the administration. We also call on the civil servants to work hard to justify the renewed relationship between them and the government.”

TopNaija previously reported that civil servants and pensioners in Kogi state lamented over unpaid salaries and pensions by the state and local governments, a situation which put many of them in a tight corner.

The state chairman, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Comrade Thomas Ayodele, lamented that teachers who were supposed to be on the first line charge in payment of salaries were relegated to the background. A primary school teacher, Audu Austin, also lamented that the irregular payments of salaries, coupled with the percentage payment over time, had compounded his situation