Members of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has threatened to down tools in Ekiti State, following the alleged suspension of three of their officials.
The NULGE officials claimed in a letter, signed by the secretary of the union, Mr. Muyiwa Cole, that three of their officials had been suspended on the orders of the governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose.
They threatened that “the union wishes to inform your office of the threat to industrial peace this action may lead to if not curtailed on time.”
According to the letter, with reference: NULGE/EKS/151/Vol. 1/54, dated March 13, 2017, the deputy chairman of NULGE, Mr. O. B. Olatunde “has been queried and suspended from service by the Local Government Service Commission along with the NULGE branch chairman of Ado Local Government, Alaketu Akeem while the NULGE brach chairman in Ijero Local Government Owodunni Olaoluwa, has been queried by the chairman of Ijero Local government.”
NULGE said in a statement attached to its letter, that the suspension of the officials was because of “the refusal of the union to divert the balance of workers’ July and August 2016 salary to pay furniture allowance to local government council chairmen.”
They said that the money amounted to N1,024, 466,207.76 which they claimed the council chairmen had insisted that they wanted to use to “settle furniture allowance, 2016 leave bonus and October 2016 salary.”
But the chairman of the state’s Local Government Service Commission, Mr. Sola Omotosho, explained that there was no diversion of any fund in any sector of the local government service.
He said the suspension of the deputy chairman of NULGE was as a result of indiscipline.
“The issue is not diversion of local government funds but a personal matter of indiscipline and insubordination on the part of Mr. Olatunde, who seems to have forgotten that before becoming a union official, he was an employee of the state government.
“I am not a member of JAAC. But when their disagreement at a meeting cropped up, the governor had intervened and advised on how to disburse the available funds, which has always been short.
“But Olatunde was openly rude to the governor and he directed that disciplinary action be taken against him,” Omotosho stated.
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