National Assembly aides protest salary delay, indict paying bank

Nasarawa govt mulls borrowing to pay council workers for November
Legislative aides at the National Assembly yesterday protested the delay in the payment of their November salary through SunTrust Bank Plc.

A representative of the about 400 aggrieved aides, Sikiru Yusuf, said in a media briefing that they were saddened that since the National Assembly management ordered the payment of their monthly salaries through the bank, their emoluments have always been delayed.

He said the workers were being owed weeks after funds were released to the bank for the payments since November 30.

They have also threatened to petition the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over what they described as gross incompetence on the part of the bank.

The legislators’ support staff noted that Sun Trust Bank had a penchant for delaying their salaries each time their monthly remunerations and other entitlements were paid through the bank.

They said the protest had become necessary after the bank declined to pay them one week after their salaries were paid through the bank.

The aides explained that they never negotiated to open accounts with the bank but that the management of the National Assembly moved their account deposits from Skye Bank to Sun Trust without their approval.

They stated further that for over two days now they had gone to the bank to make withdrawals but to no avail, after majority of them with deposits in other commercial banks have long received their monies since November 30.

Attempt to speak with the bank’s management was unsuccessful, as an officer declined to comment on the charges.

Meanwhile, Nasarawa State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Haruna Osegba, has disclosed that the state government is compelled to borrow money to pay the November salaries of council workers.

He said this during the state Local Government Areas Joint Account Committee meeting yesterday in Lafia, adding the decision followed the delay of monthly allocation from the Federal Government.

Osegba pointed out that the meeting was an extraordinary and combined one, noting that for the first time, it was held without a table on how salaries would be paid to each council in the state.