KWSG to augment July allocations of LGs with N160m

Kwara State government says the state government will augment the July 2016 federal allocation to local government councils in the state with N160 million to ensure that teachers and all other local government workers are paid their full salaries for the month.

Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed gave the assurance during an interaction with local government chairmen, their treasurers, labour leaders and top government officials on Monday night.

But, the governor, in a statement issued on Tuesday in Ilorin by his senior special assistance on media and communication, Muyideen Akorede, said the intervention became necessary because the July allocation to the local councils was inadequate to pay the full salaries of all local government workers.

Ahmed, however, hinged the intervention on the completion of the workers verification exercise, stressing that only workers that had been cleared would be paid.

The governor also emphasised that with the recent increase in allocation to all tiers, growth in internal revenue and the expected savings from the workers verification exercise, all categories of workers in the state would henceforth receive salaries as and when due.

The governor’s pledge followed a plea by the chairman, Kwara State chapter of Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Abdullateef Okandeji, for the state government’s intervention on the payment of salaries.

He as well gave an assurance that the state government would work with the local council chairmen to clear the backlog of salaries owed their workers, and also directed the council chairmen to henceforth hold meetings with stakeholders in their respective domain to discuss the value and utilisation of monthly allocation.