The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) , in Kwara State, has demanded the refund of N33.6 billion the state Governme...
The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE),
in Kwara State, has demanded the refund of N33.6 billion the state
Government deducted from the 16 Local Governments’ statutory allocations
for 84 months.
The NULGE State Secretary, Mr Afolabi Abayomi made the demand while speaking to reporters in Ilorin on Sunday.
He said the N33.6billion was unconstitutionally
deducted by the government to pay salaries of Junior Secondary School
(JSS) teachers.
Abayomi declared that payment of Junior Secondary school teachers was not the responsibility of the Local Governments.
He said the sum of N400million was illegally deducted from local governments’ monthly allocation since 2009.
The secretary also said the state government had
failed to release the Federal Government’s contribution to local
government pensioners since 2009.
He, therefore, asked the state government to
henceforth desist from this illegal deduction and to also refund Federal
Government’s pension contribution deducted.
Abayomi added that NULGE State Administrative
Secretary (SAC) met on October 14, 2016, and came out with the decision
to say no to these illegal deductions.
He said that the 16 local government areas were short
changed in their September statutory allocations using LG Joint
Accounts Allocation Committee (JAAC).
Abayomi said the short-changing culture was being
used in favour of a “State Agency that draws their statutory salary from
the Local Government Allocations”.
“The SAC-in-Session wishes to stress here that the
mode of the distribution of the August allocations shareable in
September 2016 was unfair, bias, unconstitutional and thus rejected by
the Union in Kwara State.
“SAC-in-session also resolved to withdraw from the
participation in the monthly Joint Allocation Committee meeting because
of the unholy activities coupled with deceitful tendencies and
domineering roles of the state government,” he said.
Abayomi said that the state government should as a
matter of urgency transfer state government’s technocrats posted to
local government agencies to enable LG staff, who were trained, to
manage such agencies as applicable in other states.
The secretary called on the state government to
commence payment of Domestic Allowance to GL. 15, 16 and 17 officers at
the Local Government level as it was paid to the State Civil Servants.
He implored Local Government workers in the state to
remain calm even in the face of alleged unfair treatments meted on them
by the state government.
Reacting to the allegation, Mr Muyideen Akorede the
Senior Special Assistant to Gov. Abdulfatah Ahmed, on Media and
Publicity, said the state government doesn’t deduct money from the LG.
“Funds are shared among Basic Education teachers, LGs, Pensioners, Traditional councils as prescribed by law.
“The Ahmed administration ensures this distribution
is done in transparency manner on monthly basis. So there is no basis
for a demand refund of that or any other figure.
He said, “The government only proposed to take over
Payment of JSS teachers in order to reduce the burden on LGs and enhance
their capacity to pay workers in view of reduced allocation.
“It is ironic NULGE using that as the basis for its
illogical demand for refund. We all know allocations have dropped to all
tiers of government due to drop in oil prices.
“It’s time NULGE woke up to that reality. The Ahmed administration does not tamper with LG funds,” the Governor ‘s aide added.
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