Governor Umar Namadi of Jigawa State has suspended his Special Adviser on Salary and Pensions, Bashir Ado, over an alleged premature statement on N70,000 minimum wage. This is contained in a statement signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Bala Ibrahim, in Dutse, at the weekend.

Ibrahim said the government viewed with serious concern, a statement circulating in various sections of the media alleging that the governor has approved N70,000 as a new minimum wage for workers in the state.

“This sounds embarrassing and premature as the committee headed by the Head of the State Civil Service, set up by the government to advise on the appropriate wage is yet to complete its assignment and submit a report,” Ibrahim said.

He explained that because of the development, the governor has approved the immediate suspension of Ado, pending findings of a committee set up under the chairmanship of the State Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice, Bello Abdulkadir.

The SSG added that the committee, which was given two weeks to submit its report is to investigate the source, the actual content of the alleged statement, and the motive behind it.

This is as the Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, has approved the minimum wage of N70,000 to workers with effect from October this year.
According to him, the State government has also released N3 billion entitlements to families of deceased workers in the civil service.

Unveiling the implementation of minimum wage at the weekend, the governor disclosed: “After meeting with the implementation wage committee, I directed the Head of Service (HoS) to commence payments of the national minimum wage of N70,000 to Borno workers.”

He, therefore, ordered that the payments of the minimum wage, are with effect from October 2024.

Consequently, Zulum presented a symbolic cheque of N3 billion to the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP) for disbursement to families of the deceased workers.