Abia
Abia LG staff embark on street protest over unpaid salaries
Staff of Umuahia North Local GGovernment Area of Abia State trooped to the street over alleged non-payment of salaries.
However, the state government is saying the LGA staff should go to their respective banks to access their money.
The aggrieved staff, who barricaded the Bende road tower junction during the protest, alleged that they had not received their three months salaries.
They said the non-payment of their salaries had left them in hunger and in financial distress.
They appealed to the Abia State government to pay them their salaries while also declaring that they are not ghost workers.
The workers, who locked the main gate to the local government secretariat, vowed not to reopen it until a senior staff of the State government came to address them.
They further said they were always ready to present themselves for biometric or physical verification to confirm that they were genuine workers.
The Umuahia North LGA workers denied evading the verification exercise.
They, however, advised the State government to sanction any treasurer or senior official who refused to make their payroll available to the State government.
A detachment of police officers who arrived at the scene to calm down the protesters did not achieve any result.
The Chief Press Secretary to Governor Alex Otti, Mr Kazie Uko, however, said the LGA staff should not protest as their June salaries had been lodged with their respective banks.
The CPS made it clear that the State government had already paid local government salary funds into the banks for their onward withdrawal, suggesting that the protesting staff may be having some unresolved issues with their banks.
He said the protests may have been staged against some senior staff of the local government and not the Governor Otti’s government.
“Their June salary has been lodged in their banks. Let them go to their banks and resolve any issue they have with their banks.
“All I am telling you is that their June salaries have been lodged in the banks,” said the Chief Press Secretary.
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