By Isaac Ukpoju
Lafia – Alhaji Aliyu Tijjani, the Nasarawa State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, has said that the state’s 13 Local Government Areas required over nine billion naira to pay arrears of workers’ salaries.
Tijjani made this disclosure to newsmen on Wednesday after the meeting of a joint account and stakeholders in Lafia.
He explained that the arrears of percentages of salaries being paid had accrued since October 2015 when the allocation from the federation account could no longer pay staff salaries in full.
According to him, the council areas have been augmenting staff salaries from other revenue sources aside the Statutory Revenue Allocation in order to pay the workers.
He also disclosed that the LGAs had received the sum of three billion naira from the refund to the Federal Government of over-deductions from the Paris, London clubs’ loans.
Tijani explained that there was a directive that 50 per cent of the sum should be used for the payment of staff salaries while the other half should go for capital projects.
“Out of the amount, we have decided to use N1.5 billion to augment salaries of Local Government staff.
“For the December salaries, N324 million would be used from the loan refund to augment the allocation to enable the workers get 60 per cent of their salaries,” Tijjani added.
He implored the council workers to be patient, assuring that the salary arrears would be adequately settled as the economic situation improved.