Council workers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have threatened to shut down the six area councils by withdrawing their services until the chairmen cleared their backlog of salaries and allowances with the anticipated Paris Club loan. Th e local government workers, who are members of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), called on the six area councils’ bosses to commence negotiations on how to settle the claims to avert a showdown. Blueprint gathered that the area councils were expected to receive a total of N684, 867 billion from Paris Club loan before the end of this month.
Some of the councils owe between two to three months’ salaries, while outstanding allowances date back to two years and amounted to millions of Naira. Chairman, Kuje branch of NULGE, Comrade Ibrahim Abubakar Kabi, who disclosed this to Blueprint yesterday, said the matter had been discussed at several congress meetings of the union, stressing that the executive of NULGE had been meeting with area councils’ management to ensure amicable resolution of the matter. He further disclosed that even the national executive of NULGE had been notifi ed by the FCT NULGE President Comrade Abubakar A. Yakubu who directed NULGE members in the six area councils to be on alert and await the release of the money to chairmen. Kabi wondered why Kuje “which receives N140 million from the federation account and spends about N87 million on salaries” should owe several months’ salaries and allowances “when it supplements with internally generated revenue. He assured workers that NULGE “will not compromise this time around or allow the chairmen to divert the Paris Club loan to other questionable activities and ignore the welfare of employees who have suff ered for so long.” Kabi also promised to carry workers along in the struggle to improve workers’ welfare, declaring that “I will never, never betray the trust of my members for any amount of money as long as I remain the chairman of NULGE.”
