The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) Akwa Ibom State Chapter, has tackled the Akwa Ibom State Government over false claims that it has cleared backlog of Local Government leave allowances and other emoluments owed staff of the 31 local government areas of the state.
Refuting these claims, the State President Comrade Anestina Iweh, during a press conference in Uyo on Wednesday May,19, 2021, said the claims recently made by the State Governor, His Excellency, Mr. Udom Emmanuel during a live interview programme “The Governor’s speak”, that it has cleared backlog of leave allowances of local government staff, are false, untrue and do not represent the current reality on ground.
Comrade Iweh while commending the efforts of the State Governor in addressing several pressing issues in the state, maintained that the State Government is yet to clear backlog of leave allowances as claimed.
“While the Union commends His Excellency, our Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel for taking the time off his busy schedule to talk on topical issues in the State, one being the revelation on leave grants arrears owed local government staff in the state…
The Union wishes to set the record straight and therefore states that as at the time of this press briefing, the Akwa Ibom State Government has not cleared the arrears of leave allowances and arrears of salaries of local government staff in the state.” She said.
Iweh, flanked by members of the State Administrative Council of the Union noted that staff in the employ of the Akwa Ibom State Local Government Service are owed 2014, 2019, 2020 and 2021 leave allowances respectively.
She further stressed that 22 Local Government councils out of 31 in the state benefitted from the 2018 leave allowances paid some months ago, adding that salary arrears are still owed staff of 9 local government Councils including Onna the Governor’s own local government.
The state NULGE boss while drawing the attention of the Governor to the disparity in the payment of promotion arrears to staff of the local government service as against what is obtainable in the state civil service, called on relevant authorities overseeing the disbursement of funds accruable to the 31 Local Government Areas from the State Joint Account Committee to immediately work out modalities to clear the backlog of leave allowances to local government workers.
Recall that Governor Udom Emmanuel recently in a live Interview programme tagged “The Governor Speaks, series 8” had claimed to have settled backlog of leave allowances owed local government staff.
The Governor had said “This is the
same state that when we came, even leave allowances of local government staff we had a whole lot of backlog, but today, we have cleared all of those leave allowances”.
