Wednesday, 31 December 2014
Gombe Military Barracks Blown Up by Suicide Bomber ....... BOKO haram
Nigeria- An open-air recreational area at a military barracks in the city of Gombe has been hit by a suspected suicide bomber, according to a report from Reuters.
Court Stops INEC on Ondo PDP Candidates’ List
Court stops Ondo PDP’s list of candidates
An Abuja Federal High Court has stopped the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from using any list of candidates from the Ondo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the House of Assembly, House of Representatives and Senate
elections.
The court gave the order, following an application for contempt filed by the state PDP Chairman, Chief Olu Ogunye.
The vacation judge, Justice A. R. Mohammed, directed that whichever list of candidates to be used for the elections from either of the parties to the suit should be determined by Justice Adeniyi Ademola, whose order was violated by INEC.
The court also ruled that the entire contempt proceedings and committal to prison application would be determined on January 6.
Justice Ademola, on December 18, directed that the leadership of PDP and INEC should relate with the
Ogunye-led new executive in respect of conduct of primaries and elections into the House of Assembly, House of Representatives and the Senate.
This order was allegedly violated by INEC and the PDP, which precipitated the contempt motion.
CULLED FROM
THE NATION
elections.
The court gave the order, following an application for contempt filed by the state PDP Chairman, Chief Olu Ogunye.
The vacation judge, Justice A. R. Mohammed, directed that whichever list of candidates to be used for the elections from either of the parties to the suit should be determined by Justice Adeniyi Ademola, whose order was violated by INEC.
The court also ruled that the entire contempt proceedings and committal to prison application would be determined on January 6.
Justice Ademola, on December 18, directed that the leadership of PDP and INEC should relate with the
Ogunye-led new executive in respect of conduct of primaries and elections into the House of Assembly, House of Representatives and the Senate.
Ogunye-led new executive in respect of conduct of primaries and elections into the House of Assembly, House of Representatives and the Senate.
This order was allegedly violated by INEC and the PDP, which precipitated the contempt motion.
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THE NATION
Cause of Ebola outbreak was 'a young boy playing near colony of infected bats, scientists say
Scientists said today that the cause of the deadly Ebola virus that hit West Africa this year was a 2 year old boy, known as patient zero, who played on a tree near a colony of virus-infested bats in his village in Meliandou, Guinea. He was the first person to die but before he died, he infected other family members, who then spread it to others and the virus eventually spread into other areas in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Senegal, before moving to the US, UK and Spain.This Ebola outbreak is by far the largest ever-recorded outbreak and it has killed about 7,800 people by Dec. 17, 2014, according to WHO.
Seven Famous Sports Personalities who died in 2014
Deaths are inevitable and when they come knocking at the door, hardly can any one resist them from gaining entrance.Like people will say, it is the works one was able to leave on the footprints of time that lives on even after the person must have gone to the world beyond.Some notable sports personalities passed on this year, while some died peacefully in a ripe old age, others died while battling one ailment or the other.
In some other instances, famous sports names were grieviously murdered in their young age.So below we chronicle some of the notable names who died in 2014
*Eusebio da Silva Ferreira (football)
Perhaps the first notable sports person to pass in 2014, the great Eusebio died at his home on 5 January following a heart failure.
Born in Mozambique, he went on to become a Portuguese striker, scoring a total of 790 career goals: 749 goals in 745 matches at club level and 41 goals for Portugal.
He scored nine goals and received the Bronze Ball award at the 1966 World Cup tournament, leading Portugal to third place.
Eusebio won the Ballon d'Or award for European footballer of the year in 1965.He died at the age of 71.
*Alfredo Di Stefano (football)
The only player to play for three countries: Argentina, Colombia and Spain, Di Stefano was truly a great player.Di Stéfano was moved to intensive care unit in the Gregorio Marañón hospital in Madrid, where he died on 7 July 2014 following a heart attack.
He was widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time to have played the game.
He is currently the fifth highest scorer in the Spanish La Liga and Real Madrid's second highest league goalscorer of all time, with 216 goals in 282 league matches.He died at the age of 88.
*Malcolm Glazer (Club owner)
Malcom Glazer is known mainly for his ownership of big sports brands across the globe.
Glazer acquired ownership of Premier League side, Manchester United and also Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL.He is believed to have had been in poor health since suffering two strokes in April 2006 and died 29 May 2014.He died at the age of 85.
*Elena Baltacha (Tennis)
Elena Baltacha was a former British tennis player who died on 5 May 2014 after losing her fight to cancer.She won eleven ITF singles titles and four ITF doubles titles in her career.
Baltacha was diagnosed with liver cancer in January 2014, just a few weeks after her marriage to tennis coach Nino Severino.She died at the age of 30
*The Ultimate Warrior( WWE)
Real name James Hellwig, he was a former WWE member before he retired.Anybody who is a fan of Wrestling and watched it in the 90's would know of his exploits in the ring.
He was a recent inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame, following his achievements at the Wrestlemania.
The Ultimate Warrior died on 9 April 2014 at the age of 54.
*Jimmy Ellis (Boxer)
Known for his acquaintance with the great Muhammad Ali, Ellis was his sparring partner during his hey-days.He went on to become a heavyweight boxing champion just like Muhammad Ali.
He died from conditions related to Alzheimer's disease and dementia at the age of 74.
*Senzo Meyiwa (football)
The world was jolted at the news of South African skipper and goalkeeper being shot dead in October.
South Africa police reported that two men entered a house in the Vosloorus township, in which Meyiwa was shot in the presence of his girlfriend Kelly Khumalo, following an altercation, while one man waited outside.
He was the captain of the Bafana Bafana and would have led them to the African Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea. He died at the age of 27.
Seven Boko Haram bombers die in explosive-laden van
Seven suspected Boko Haram terrorists were on Monday killed when an Improvised Explosives Device hidden in a Toyota pick-up van exploded before it could get to Biu Market, suspected to be its destination.
A security source, who spoke on condition of anonymity with our correspondent on the telephone on Tuesday, said, “A Toyota pick-up van, loaded with maize and beans with IED hidden under them, belonging to Boko Haram insurgents, exploded near Chikwarkir village of Biu, killing all the occupants of the van.”
He said it was believed that the insurgents intended to sneak into Biu Market to detonate the explosives and kill many traders and customers.
“As you know, it is harvest time and people are taking their farm produce to the market; but thank God, the bomb exploded before they could get to the market,” the source said.
He added that the insurgents must have specifically chosen Monday, as they were aware that Monday and Thursday were the market days in Biu, the headquarters of Biu Local Government.
okorolord: AirAsia plane carrying 153 people overshoots runwa...
okorolord: AirAsia plane carrying 153 people overshoots runwa...: Two days after an AirAsia airliner carrying 163 people plunged into the sea, another one carrying 153 passengers overshot the ru...
AirAsia plane carrying 153 people overshoots runway in Philippines
Two days after an AirAsia airliner carrying 163 people plunged into the sea, another one carrying 153 passengers overshot the runway at an airport in the Philippines today December 30th, forcing passengers to disembark the aircraft on emergency slides.
The incident occurred at Kalibo Airport in Aklan province in Philippines according to a journalist Jet Damazo-Santos who was on board and shared the photo above on Twitter. "Engine was shut immediately, we were told to leave bags, deplane asap. Firetruck was waiting,' she said There have been no word from AirAsia officials about this latest incident but according to Jet, no passenger was injured in this latest mishap -
Tuesday, 30 December 2014
US Revealed; Why We Stopped Buying Nigeria’s Oil, By White House
United States government have for the first time in months presented an explanation on the sudden termination of oil imports from Nigeria since July, an action which spurred concerns whether there were any possible political connotation especially because of the current strain in Nigeria-US diplomatic relations.
Answering a question on the issue from The Guardian, during the week, White House Director of the US National Economic Council, Mr. Jeff Zients, said the cessation of oil imports from Nigeria had to do with the significant rise in US oil production.
Zients, US Labor Secretary, Thomas Perez, and White House Policy Council Director, Cecelia Munoz, were addressing a few US journalists on Thursday afternoon on the state of the American economy when The Guardian raised the question wondering why the US brought oil imports from Nigeria to a complete zero, while still importing oil from Saudi Arabia and other major oil producing countries.
According to the White House Economic Council Director, “across the last several years, US oil production has ramped up significantly by more than 50 percent to now over eight and a half million barrels per day.”
He explained that such a high turn up in local US oil production “has now dramatically reduced our dependency on imports,” Zients noted, adding that “in fact, we now produce more here than we import.”
The White House official stated that the development is consistent with President Barack Obama’s energy strategy, which has changed “quite a bit over the last few years as we are much less dependent on oil imports.”
That strategy has not only left Nigeria in the lurch, but has generally also driven down the international market price of oil to a ridiculous $60 range by the close of trading on Friday. Oil price, which soared around $100 in September, is now $56.52 for the WTI Crude and $61.38 for the Brent Crude oil.
But Zients and the other US officials at the press briefing did not address the issue of the ongoing importation from other oil producing nations, including OPEC members like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and non-OPEC suppliers like Canada. In fact, as at last month, it was reported that, while US completely halted oil imports from Nigeria, it increased its importation from those three countries.
The reduction of US oil importation from Nigeria to zero is the very first time since 1973 that the US did not import oil from Nigeria. US Shale oil production is responsible for the infusion of “light, sweet crude,” said to be similar to Nigeria’s Bonny Light oil, and US refineries are said to have preferred buying the locally produced oil, which is cheaper than Nigeria’s light crude.
Before Zients explanation on Thursday, there have been muted concerns whether the decision to completely end oil importation from Nigeria has any political connotation. For instance, a German top bank, Deutsche Bank had commented last month that “as if the recent drop in oil prices was not enough bad news for Nigeria’s economy, recent data show the US completely stopped importing crude oil from Nigeria. This marks a dramatic reversal for Africa’s largest economy, which in 2010 was still among America’s top 5 oil suppliers and exported at its peak 1.3m barrels per day to the United States.”
The German bank analysis further questioned why Nigeria was singled out, an aspect of the question posed by The Guardian to which the US government officials did not address. According to Deutsche Bank, the decline in US imports from Nigeria, “proceeded much faster than for the US’ other major suppliers.’ It is the rather drastic and complete zero oil imports from Nigeria that suggested a possible political connotation, which was however left unexplained by Zients.
Observers say it is not unlikely that oil imports termination with Nigeria and the refusal of the US government to sell weapons to Nigeria to fight Boko Haram might both be political signals from President Barack Obama to the Nigerian presidency as it can be seen as demonstration of a lack of commitment by the US government to a supposed strategic partner —Nigeria — in Africa.
The Obama administration’s outright refusal to approve the sale of specific military equipment to Nigeria, in a clear-cut public renunciation of the Nigerian military and security apparatus which requested the okay from the US Defense department is also a potential dampener to US claims of a thriving diplomatic relationship with Nigeria. First, it was the US Ambassador in Nigeria who confirmed that the country would not okay the weapons sales to Nigeria, and then the State Department in response to Nigeria’s Ambassador’s complaints on the issue.
This particular refusal is sending clear indications that there are strong oppositional voices against President Jonathan in the White House, the State Department and Pentagon, causing further strain between Nigeria and the American governments, according to knowledgeable US sources.
Last month, Nigeria’s US Ambassador had to openly criticise the US government for not approving the sales of Cobra fighter jets to Nigeria to help fight the Boko Haram insurgency at a meeting he had with the influential US Council for Foreign Relations in his office. Adefuye, US sources say was expending his far-reaching influence with top US government officials in an apparent last-ditch effort to change the tone of the Obama administration towards the Jonathan presidency.
In fact, authoritative US sources said the denouncement of the military sale and the abandonment of the highly valued Nigerian crude oil by US oil future traders recently are happening at a time when the offices of National Security Adviser and Finance Minister of Nigeria are spending millions of dollars to retain US lobbyists in Washington DC to help plead the case of the Jonathan presidency without much success.
Explaining the desperation from the Nigerian government over the need for such lobbyists, a source from the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Abuja also said while the federal government through the office of the NSA and Finance Ministry were paying millions for lobbyists, the salaries of Nigerian diplomats were still backlogged, including in the US.
FG owes 70,000 workers three-month salaries
No fewer than 70,000 civil servants in 30 Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government have yet to receive their three months’ salaries.
The Secretary-General of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, Mr. Alade Lawal, made this known just as investigations by The PUNCH revealed that states like Osun, Oyo, Benue and Plateau are owing their workers between three and four months’ salaries.
Prominent among the ministries listed by Lawal during an interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja on Monday are Education, Works, Labour and Productivity, Mines and Power.
He said, “About eight MDAs have been owing workers their salaries from October. The number rose to 11 in November and in December, hit 30, including departments and agencies.”
Asked what was responsible for the increase in the number of MDAs indebted to their workers, Lawal said some government officials involved in salary payments were engaged in a game of deceit.
He said, “They are telling us that some of the MDAs are involved in expenditure items different from salaries. They said they were spending on items not related to salaries. But that is not supposed to be the fault of the workers.
“There should be synergy in government whereby they have to work in tandem with the Budget Office and Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation. They know what they are doing, they are muddling up the whole exercise and suffering workers unnecessarily.”
He said the government had no tangible reason for not paying the workers, having promised to do so before December 24.
“As of December 22, they promised us that before Wednesday, December 24, these payments would be made. But as I am talking to you now, affected workers have not been paid.
“The Ministry of Works alone has about 26,000 workers. If you add them together, they can’t be less than 70,000 workers that are affected.
“We have been liaising with our people. But you know, this is a festive period and it has affected some of the trade union actions we intended taking. The promise that they made last week which they also told the press that they would pay before Christmas, we thought they were serious about it. But latest developments indicate that they are deceiving us.”
The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had in a statement by her Special Adviser on Communication, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, on December 22 promised that the salary arrears of civil servants in MDAs would be paid before Christmas.
The PUNCH gathered on Monday that civil servants in states like Osun, Oyo, Benue, Plateau and Abia had a bleak Christmas as they are being owed between two and four-month salaries.
In Osun State for instance, the Chairman of state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Saka Adesiyan, told one of our correspondents in Osogbo that workers were being owed October, November and December salaries.
The Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Mr. Boye Abolarin, also confirmed that secondary school teachers were being owed October, November and December salaries.
Abolarin said that workers were subjected to hardship while politicians were feeding fat especially during the Yuletide.
Governor Rauf Aregbesola, however, blamed the development on the dwindling monthly allocations to the state.
Aregbesola, in a statement made available to our correspondent by his media aide, Semiu Okanlawon, said, “Either at the federal or at the state level, where is it that workers are being paid as and when due?
“We thought this situation will not last long. That was why we used our strategic reserve to augment salaries for one year. All our savings were spent on augmentation of salaries.”
In Oyo, the state NLC Chairman, Basiru Alli, said that the November and December salaries of some workers were being awaited.
He said, “I will not say that government in the state is owing us, it is actually delaying payment of workers salaries. As of now, not all workers have been paid November salaries. Some are still waiting for theirs. We do not know when the December salary will come.”
Asked what efforts the NLC was making to ensure all the workers got paid, Alli said that they were told by the government that dwindling allocations from the Federal Government were responsible.
“We hold consultations with the government from time to time and what we were told the last time was that it was not a deliberate attempt to delay the salaries but due to dwindling allocations, the state had to manage its resources.”
But the Special Adviser to Governor Abiola Ajimobi on Media, Dr. Festus Adedayo, said that all workers had been paid November salaries.
He said, “The state government is passionate about staff welfare. We are handicapped by the dwindling allocations from the Federal Government. We have a wage bill of N4.9bn but the allocation we have this month was N2.9bn. Last month, the state got N3.1bn from the Federal Government. We are working hard to ensure workers are paid the December salaries.”
The situation in Benue State is not better as the government is also currently owing three months’ salaries.
Before the Yuletide, the government owed workers five months’ salaries but it paid two months’ salaries at different intervals.
A civil servant, who pleaded anonymity told The PUNCH that a day to Christmas, some of his colleagues received alert for one month salary while on Monday, others received alert for their second salary payment.
The civil servant explained that they could not enjoy the Yuletide due to the debts they had incurred.
He said, “What the state government paid to us was used to settle debts .
“Mind you, we from the mainstream civil service are not on any industrial action but the state is currently owing us three month-salaries. I can tell you that the situation is worse for lecturers as they have been on half salaries for five months.”
Investigations by The PUNCH in Abia State indicated that while civil servants in the ministries had received their November and December salaries, their counterparts in the parastatals were being owed some months .
The Chairman, NLC in the state, Sylvanus Eye, said workers in the parastatals had not been paid November and December salaries.
He added that teachers as well as council workers were also being owed arrears of two months.
The state leadership of NLC had about three weeks ago picketed the office of the Accountant General over the salary arrears of the parastatal workers and for allegedly witholding check- off dues of the union.
When contacted, the Accountant General, Gabriel Onyendilefu, said that “the function of payment is dependent on available cash”.
He explained that in the past five months, the state’s allocations from the federation accounts had been dwindling following the constant fall in the price of crude oil.
In Kogi State, local governments’ workers complained that they only received half of their salaries for October and November.
They alleged that they still had some backlogs of salaries that were not fully paid.
A source, who pleaded anonymity, said the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Abubakar Sadiq, had informed them that they would receive alert of their December payment on Tuesday(today).
The NLC Chairman, Plateau State chapter, Mr. Jibrin Bancir, told one of our correspondents that the government was owing many workers four months arrears of salaries and leave grants.
The worst hit are local government workers who have not been paid for about seven months.
Meanwhile, the NLC has directed its state chapters to furnish it with actual state of affairs in connection with the salary arrears.
Noting that it was criminal for any government to owe workers their salaries, the NLC said it would take a firm decision in a couple of days on the issue.
The General Secretary of the congress, Mr. Peter Ozo-Eson, stated this in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents in Ilorin on Monday.
He said, “We have not taken a firm decision on what to do until we get actual information on which state, what is owed, how many months and the actual amount from all the state councils. We hope that within a couple of days, these reports would have got to us and we would take a firm position on them.
“We would rely on the reports that we get from our state chapters. We are asking our state to advise us on salary payments and if there are debts. Based on that we are going to collate take appropriate actions in relation to getting those salaries paid.
“We condemn any state government that is owing arrears of salaries because the workers must be the first to be paid before they start spending on any other issue.”
Ozo-Eson said it was worrisome that even the Federal Government was owing some categories of its workers for about three months.
He lamented that some state chapters of the NLC did not give the national body a report on time that their members were being owed.
He stated that payment of workers’ salaries should be made a priority.
The NLC secretary said, “For us, it is criminal for any government not to pay workers’ salaries, accumulate them over months while the governors and other political office holders take their own salaries. Such is criminal. We are also aware that even the Federal Government is owing some categories of civil servants their salaries for over three months.
“This is extremely unacceptable. Whatever is the reason for that! In the case of the Federal Government, they try to explain it in terms of problems with migration to IPPIS system.We think whatever is the logic, those salaries and arrears need to be paid immediately.
“On state governments that are owing, unfortunately some of the NLC chapters did not bring it to our notice early enough for us to know that salaries are owed. If you owe a worker salary for a month, you have no moral obligation to expect workers to come and render any service.
“So to hear that there are states and large number of them that are owing workers for two or three months is completely unacceptable.”
The Secretary-General of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, Mr. Alade Lawal, made this known just as investigations by The PUNCH revealed that states like Osun, Oyo, Benue and Plateau are owing their workers between three and four months’ salaries.
Prominent among the ministries listed by Lawal during an interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja on Monday are Education, Works, Labour and Productivity, Mines and Power.
He said, “About eight MDAs have been owing workers their salaries from October. The number rose to 11 in November and in December, hit 30, including departments and agencies.”
Asked what was responsible for the increase in the number of MDAs indebted to their workers, Lawal said some government officials involved in salary payments were engaged in a game of deceit.
He said, “They are telling us that some of the MDAs are involved in expenditure items different from salaries. They said they were spending on items not related to salaries. But that is not supposed to be the fault of the workers.
“There should be synergy in government whereby they have to work in tandem with the Budget Office and Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation. They know what they are doing, they are muddling up the whole exercise and suffering workers unnecessarily.”
He said the government had no tangible reason for not paying the workers, having promised to do so before December 24.
“As of December 22, they promised us that before Wednesday, December 24, these payments would be made. But as I am talking to you now, affected workers have not been paid.
“The Ministry of Works alone has about 26,000 workers. If you add them together, they can’t be less than 70,000 workers that are affected.
“We have been liaising with our people. But you know, this is a festive period and it has affected some of the trade union actions we intended taking. The promise that they made last week which they also told the press that they would pay before Christmas, we thought they were serious about it. But latest developments indicate that they are deceiving us.”
The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had in a statement by her Special Adviser on Communication, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, on December 22 promised that the salary arrears of civil servants in MDAs would be paid before Christmas.
The PUNCH gathered on Monday that civil servants in states like Osun, Oyo, Benue, Plateau and Abia had a bleak Christmas as they are being owed between two and four-month salaries.
In Osun State for instance, the Chairman of state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Saka Adesiyan, told one of our correspondents in Osogbo that workers were being owed October, November and December salaries.
The Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Mr. Boye Abolarin, also confirmed that secondary school teachers were being owed October, November and December salaries.
Abolarin said that workers were subjected to hardship while politicians were feeding fat especially during the Yuletide.
Governor Rauf Aregbesola, however, blamed the development on the dwindling monthly allocations to the state.
Aregbesola, in a statement made available to our correspondent by his media aide, Semiu Okanlawon, said, “Either at the federal or at the state level, where is it that workers are being paid as and when due?
“We thought this situation will not last long. That was why we used our strategic reserve to augment salaries for one year. All our savings were spent on augmentation of salaries.”
In Oyo, the state NLC Chairman, Basiru Alli, said that the November and December salaries of some workers were being awaited.
He said, “I will not say that government in the state is owing us, it is actually delaying payment of workers salaries. As of now, not all workers have been paid November salaries. Some are still waiting for theirs. We do not know when the December salary will come.”
Asked what efforts the NLC was making to ensure all the workers got paid, Alli said that they were told by the government that dwindling allocations from the Federal Government were responsible.
“We hold consultations with the government from time to time and what we were told the last time was that it was not a deliberate attempt to delay the salaries but due to dwindling allocations, the state had to manage its resources.”
But the Special Adviser to Governor Abiola Ajimobi on Media, Dr. Festus Adedayo, said that all workers had been paid November salaries.
He said, “The state government is passionate about staff welfare. We are handicapped by the dwindling allocations from the Federal Government. We have a wage bill of N4.9bn but the allocation we have this month was N2.9bn. Last month, the state got N3.1bn from the Federal Government. We are working hard to ensure workers are paid the December salaries.”
The situation in Benue State is not better as the government is also currently owing three months’ salaries.
Before the Yuletide, the government owed workers five months’ salaries but it paid two months’ salaries at different intervals.
A civil servant, who pleaded anonymity told The PUNCH that a day to Christmas, some of his colleagues received alert for one month salary while on Monday, others received alert for their second salary payment.
The civil servant explained that they could not enjoy the Yuletide due to the debts they had incurred.
He said, “What the state government paid to us was used to settle debts .
“Mind you, we from the mainstream civil service are not on any industrial action but the state is currently owing us three month-salaries. I can tell you that the situation is worse for lecturers as they have been on half salaries for five months.”
Investigations by The PUNCH in Abia State indicated that while civil servants in the ministries had received their November and December salaries, their counterparts in the parastatals were being owed some months .
The Chairman, NLC in the state, Sylvanus Eye, said workers in the parastatals had not been paid November and December salaries.
He added that teachers as well as council workers were also being owed arrears of two months.
The state leadership of NLC had about three weeks ago picketed the office of the Accountant General over the salary arrears of the parastatal workers and for allegedly witholding check- off dues of the union.
When contacted, the Accountant General, Gabriel Onyendilefu, said that “the function of payment is dependent on available cash”.
He explained that in the past five months, the state’s allocations from the federation accounts had been dwindling following the constant fall in the price of crude oil.
In Kogi State, local governments’ workers complained that they only received half of their salaries for October and November.
They alleged that they still had some backlogs of salaries that were not fully paid.
A source, who pleaded anonymity, said the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Abubakar Sadiq, had informed them that they would receive alert of their December payment on Tuesday(today).
The NLC Chairman, Plateau State chapter, Mr. Jibrin Bancir, told one of our correspondents that the government was owing many workers four months arrears of salaries and leave grants.
The worst hit are local government workers who have not been paid for about seven months.
Meanwhile, the NLC has directed its state chapters to furnish it with actual state of affairs in connection with the salary arrears.
Noting that it was criminal for any government to owe workers their salaries, the NLC said it would take a firm decision in a couple of days on the issue.
The General Secretary of the congress, Mr. Peter Ozo-Eson, stated this in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents in Ilorin on Monday.
He said, “We have not taken a firm decision on what to do until we get actual information on which state, what is owed, how many months and the actual amount from all the state councils. We hope that within a couple of days, these reports would have got to us and we would take a firm position on them.
“We would rely on the reports that we get from our state chapters. We are asking our state to advise us on salary payments and if there are debts. Based on that we are going to collate take appropriate actions in relation to getting those salaries paid.
“We condemn any state government that is owing arrears of salaries because the workers must be the first to be paid before they start spending on any other issue.”
Ozo-Eson said it was worrisome that even the Federal Government was owing some categories of its workers for about three months.
He lamented that some state chapters of the NLC did not give the national body a report on time that their members were being owed.
He stated that payment of workers’ salaries should be made a priority.
The NLC secretary said, “For us, it is criminal for any government not to pay workers’ salaries, accumulate them over months while the governors and other political office holders take their own salaries. Such is criminal. We are also aware that even the Federal Government is owing some categories of civil servants their salaries for over three months.
“This is extremely unacceptable. Whatever is the reason for that! In the case of the Federal Government, they try to explain it in terms of problems with migration to IPPIS system.We think whatever is the logic, those salaries and arrears need to be paid immediately.
“On state governments that are owing, unfortunately some of the NLC chapters did not bring it to our notice early enough for us to know that salaries are owed. If you owe a worker salary for a month, you have no moral obligation to expect workers to come and render any service.
“So to hear that there are states and large number of them that are owing workers for two or three months is completely unacceptable.”
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