However, a peace meeting summoned by the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs (BLGCA) in the state with members of the forum in Makurdi yesterday deadlocked.
The councillors are demanding full payment of their salaries, severance allowances and other benefits before the end of their tenure on June 3, 2019.
But sources at the meeting told The Guardian that the Special Adviser to BLGCA Jerome Torshimbe, had appealed to the councillors to be patient with government, as it spent a lot of money in the recent general election.
The anonymous source quoted the adviser as pleading with the aggrieved councillors for more time to enable the bureau work out other sources of fund to pay them.
The councillors also revealed that the state government had planned to sack the elected council chairmen and councillors and replace them with Directors-General Services and Administration (DGSAs) of the various councils.
This idea, the sources said, was however rescinded when government realised that it might lead to another face-off with the councillors.
Chairman of the forum, Dan Attai, told journalists shortly after the meeting: “Since we assumed office, the state government has been paying some of our members N130,000 and others N150,000 monthly, but without cogent explanation.
“It means some councillors were being favoured more than others, and up to the time of the meeting (yesterday), the state government did not disclose the reason for the disparity in payment.”
The Guardian investigation at the bureau revealed that the monthly salary of a councillor in the state is about N250,000.
According to the councillors, whose tenure will expire in less than two months, once they vacate office, it will be difficult for them to get their entitlements.
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