The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) said that 23 states of the federation currently owed local government workers arrears of salaries ranging from one to 16 months.
National President of the union, Ibrahim Khaleel in a statement on Monday said Bayelsa State led with 10 to 16 months, followed by Kogi between seven to 15 months; Delta State eight to 14 months.
“Kaduna 12 months; Oyo three to 11 months; Edo 10 months; Abia five to nine months; Kwara two to nine months; Benue nine months and Nasarawa seven months.
“Ondo, Ekiti, Imo with six months; Zanfara has not implemented minimum wage, Adamawa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Plateau owing four months, Taraba and FCT three months.
“Osun state has been paying half salaries for 24 months and few staff are owed few months in Enugu,” he said.
The union noted that Ekiti had refused to remit union dues for the past nine months and Ogun had not also remitted its deduction for seven months.
The national president also said that 700 staff members were owed between one to three months in Cross River State.
He called on the governors of the states to offset the salaries and other allowances before the union would be forced to mobilise and shut down all local government councils in the country.
Khaleel called on the state governors not to divert or tamper with the second tranche of Paris Club Loan refund but use it to offset the entitlement of the workers.
“We want to state in strong term that no governor should either divert or tamper with the fund.
“This should be an avenue where the backlog of arrears of salaries owed the Local Government workers and some other welfare packages should be settled.
“Such as leave bonus, arrears of promotion benefits, arrears of annual increment and non implementation of minimum wage most especially in Zamfara State are resolved and paid.
“We, therefore, use this medium to appeal passionately to the State Governors to use this 2nd Tranche of Paris club loan refund to clear the backlog arrears of outstanding salaries.
“This is in order to ameliorate the untold hardship they are currently passing through due to this ugly situation,” he said.
Khaleed commended the 14 states including Lagos, Ogun, Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Sokoto, Kebbi, Bauchi, Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Cross River, Niger and Anambra that were up to date in the entitlement of local government workers.
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