Taraba orders direct payment of council workers, pensioners’ wages

Taraba State Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku has ordered that the salaries of local council workers and the arrears of pensioners at councils level be paid directly into their bank accounts.

According to the Permanent Secretary, Bureau for Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Bello Yero, the directive would help to curb corruption at the councils. “It would also motivate the workers in their duties,” he added.

Yero, who disclosed this yesterday while answering questions from journalists in Jalingo, the state capital said this was part of efforts by the state governor to reposition the local councils for effective service delivery.

Before this directive, council workers are paid by the chairmen. This method, according to the workers often leads to shortages in their salaries.

Some council workers who spoke to The Guardian commended the development, stressing that if sustained their monthly salaries would no longer be tampered with.

“This is the best thing the state governor and the leadership of the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs has done to us since the creation of this state,” one of the workers said.

Some of the workers later confirmed that they had started receiving bank alerts for the payments.