Kogi Patriotic Group(KPG), has alerted NULGE officials and local Government workers in the 21 local government, to resume protests to discourage the state government concluded plans to divert monies meant for the payment of arrears of workers, into payment of 5 months arears of state workers
Abdul Abdul alleged that the 45.5 billion captured by the immediate past administration of Capt Idris Wada, meant for workers in the local government released by the federal authorities, were been channelled into other government commitment at the state level
He wondered why council workers are been treated as second class citizens, after the state government had feasted on its allocation for over three and half years, under the guise of joint allocations,recovered by the new policy on council allocations
According th the image maker,even at that, the government of Alhaji Yahaya Bello connived with some disgruntled council officials to borrow 3 Billion naira and deduct 90 million naira each from the council funds,but was resisted by mass protests of workers of the local governments
He urged them to use similar platform to stop forthwith, the concluded arrangements to use loc government funds, to pay arears of state workers in view of the electioneering plan, to return to leadership of the state by the state governor
Abdul said out of the 50.8 Billion naira applied by Capt Idris Wada’s administration in 2015,5 Billion was meant to offset just two months arears of state workers,while the balance of 45.8 billion was to be for local government workers,wondering why the monies will be diverted
He said the state government is broke and cannot meet the obligations of workers at the state level, having mismanaged both the state and federal allocations, as well as the internally generated revenue, meant to address such critical issues of workers salaries
The group opined that if NULGE allowed this situation to go unabated,it’s staff may not have the opportunity of getting their legitimate entitlements in a long time to come,blaming the federal authorities for not paying this funds directly into local government accounts,since it is meant to offset their salaries
He appealed to the federal authorities to sustain the policy of direct allocation to local government accounts,particularly in Kogi, as some council’s officials are still been teleguided by the state government, to infiltrate into the funds of the council’s by all means possible
Union leaders recently warned the state government on its plans to divert funds into servicing the current liabilities to workers, instead of the previous commitment between 2012-2016 captured in the borrowing
Kogi governorship aspirants have condemned the release of the Bail out to the state government, for fear of diversion and other sundry issues like vote buying and to fund Yahaya Bello’s re-election bid
Kogi state government had channelled council funds into servicing of thuggery activities and election of it’s party candidates, in the last election held in February
The inability of the present administration to conduct local government election at the state level,had been a serious concern as the administrators have no legal teeth to access local government funds