Labour unions, Akeredolu disagree over N7.6b Paris Club loan refunds

‘Kebbi received N5.9b, paid 40 per cent to pensioners’

Labour unions in Ondo State have disagreed with Governor Rotimi Akeredolu over factional payment of their outstanding salaries after receiving N7.6 billion Paris Club Loan refunds.

The unions, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Joint Negotiating Council (JNC) demanded the full payment of their 2016 outstanding salaries without delay.

A statement by the NLC Chairman, Bose Daramola, the TUC counterpart, Sola Ekundayo and Adeleye Oluwole of the JNC disclosed this after their meeting.The governor had told the workers at a meeting that the funds were not enough to settle the five months arrears inherited from ex-governor Olusegun Mimiko.

The unions said the workers would not accept fractional payment of their salaries and pensions and urged the governor to seek additional funds to offset the arrears.Akeredolu had said at the meeting that the 75per cent of the funds, which is N5.7billion, would not be enough to pay the arrears.

He explained that some deductions were made from the money, including the 25 per cent shared by the local councils.The Guardian learnt that the governor turned down the workers’ request that he should devise other means of raising money to pay them.

Akeredolu had further proposed that workers at all the grade levels would be paid 80 per cent of their September 2016 salaries, which the organised labour also rejected.

According to the unions, the accountant-general’s office reneged on an agreements reached at a follow-up meeting that the money should be used to pay the full salaries of the workers, rather than paying 80 per cent on a grade level basis, as proposed by the governor.

Meanwhile, the Kebbi State government has confirmed that it received N5.9billion Parish Club Loan refunds from the Federal Government.The Commissioner for Finance, Ibrahim Muhammed Augie disclosed this in Birnin Kebbi, while speaking with journalists.

He explained that pensioners in the state had been paid 40 per cent of their entitlements.According to him: “We received the first batch of the money and complied with the instruction by the Federal Government that the money should be used to pay salary arrears and infrastructure development.”