…They’re not genuine staff – Deputy gov
Disgruntled Benue state civil servants yesterday blocked the Makurdi – Enugu road while protesting the delay in payment of their salaries by the state government.
The workers, who blocked the road around the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) office, said they were protesting to drive home their grievances over the non-payment of their salaries for seven months at the state government level and 10 at the local council level.
The workers, who set bonfire on the road leaving the commuters stranded, also accused the leadership of the NLC of compromising, saying they did not have their interest at heart.
But the state chairman of the NLC, Godwin Anya, denied that those protesting were Benue workers, noting that the real workers were still negotiating with the state government and “cannot be part of that protest.”
Anya explained that the national leadership of the NLC had held a meeting with SEC in the state and agreed to step in and interface with the state government with the view to resolving the impasse over the issue of salaries.
He said: “SEC after the warning strike by worker in the state had a meeting with national leadership of the NLC and accepted the decision of the national body to step into our problem and interface with the Benue state government with the view to resolving the matter.
“Those people protesting on the road are not our members because the workers are not irresponsible people and they cannot go and burn fire and block road in the name of protesting,” he said.
According to him, SEC also condemned and rejected the government circular purportedly signed by the deputy governor directing the workers to submit their bank statements, with threat that they would lose their jobs if they failed to do so.
Reacting, the Deputy Governor and chairman of Salary Verification Committee, Engr. Benson Abounu, stated that those protesting were not genuine workers.
He said the circular issued by government for workers to submit their statement of accounts was not to witch-hunt any worker, but was aimed at identifying issues of salary padding.
“The essence of requesting the state workers to submit their statement of account was to identify cases of salary padding. You know, we are operating e-payment and not table payment where workers sign on payment sheet when they collect their salaries.
“In this case, government pays a lump sum to one person, who sits on the computer and starts pushing the money to workers, without physically seeing them or getting their signatures. This is where the problem is,” he said.
