By Inusa Ndahi, Maiduguri
The Nigeria Labour Congress in Borno State has appealed to Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state to pay the outstanding arrears of N20 billion the state government is owing the state and local government council’s pensioners in gratuity and pension before he leaves office on May 29, 2019.
The NLC Chairman Borno state, Comrade Titus Abana who made the plea in an interview with newsmen in Maiduguri also alleged that “the last time gratuity of retirees were paid, was in 2013, pointing out that all efforts to impress Shettima pay entitlements on time were truncated and frustrated by some top government officials.
“In spite of the release of a tranche of the Paris Club Refund, the state government has not paid the backlog of gratuity and pension being owed retirees.
“We met with the governor to push for these payments and he promised to do so before he leaves.
“He said he will not want his predecessor to inherit any burden from his government and promised he will pay all arrears of pension, gratuities accumulated by his government and the past government.
“We are reminding him to also pay the backlog of promotion arrears and leave grant of workers which had been pending for more than three years due to the biometric verification.
“No worker has been paid any benefit in the last three years since the verification started,” Abana said.
The State NLC Chairman, however, noted that the exercise had exposed many workers to untold frustration and hardship.
“Many retirees have died untimely deaths due to frustration and hardship.” he said.
Abana further appealed to the governor to allocate the state government’s Legacy Housing Estate to the civil servants with a view to cushioning accommodation problems of the state workforce and save workers from threats of landlords.
The NLC Chairman, however, maintained that workers expectations from the new administration of Professor Babagana Umara Zulum was very high, stressing that workers hope that the new government will carry the civil servants along in all its plans and policies in order to succeed.