They specifically accused their governors of ensuring regular payment of salaries and allowances to political office holders and state legislators despite owing workers several months of salaries.
Labour leaders and civil servants in Kwara, Oyo, Ekiti, Ondo, Benue, and Kaduna states expressed these feelings during separate interviews with SUNDAY PUNCH correspondents.
In Kwara State, labour leaders said they were unhappy that government functionaries were enjoying regular monthly payments while workers were allowed to suffer.
They alleged that workers in the 16 local government councils and those of the State Universal Basic Education Board were being owed many months of salary arrears.
The labour leaders also said it was unfair that pensioners in the state were being owed many months of pension arrears and gratuity.
Those who spoke included the state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Yemi Agunbiade; the Secretary of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, Mr. Afolabi Abayomi; and the Chairman, Kwara State Local Government Pensioners Association, Alhaji lsiaka Akanbi.
But the Senior Special Assistant to the Kwara State Governor on Media and Communication, Dr. Muyideen Akorede in a telephone interview, claimed that workers and political office holders in the state were receiving their salaries every month.
Workers in Ekiti State also cried out that they were being owed five months salaries by the state government.
But the State Commissioner for Information, Lanre Ogunsuyi, said political appointees in the state were also owed five months salaries.
Similarly, in Benue State, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Terver Akase, said that just like any other civil servants, political office holders had yet to receive their salaries.
He stated that Governor Samuel Ortom ensured that workers in the state were being paid up to date.
Meanwhile, the Ogun State Chapter of the Trade Union Congress, said the conditions of civil servants in the state have assumed a worrisome dimension, due to their unpaid 11 months’ cooperative deductions.
The state chairman of the union, Olubunmi Fajobi, said majority of civil servants who were currently being owed were now living under extreme poverty.
SUNDAY PUNCH correspondent in the state, however noted that all the political office holders and members of the state House of Assembly, were receiving their salaries and allowances, as at when due.
In Ondo State, the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Kayode Akinmade, said political office holders in the state were also being owed some months of salaries like the state civil servants.
Akinmade said political appointees were usually paid after the civil servants had received their salaries.
He said, “It is the civil servants that prepare the salaries of the political appointees, including the governor. So, it is not possible for us to collect salaries when the workers are being owed.
“No appointee has collected his or her salary up-to-date in Ondo, since the workers are still being owed. Political office holders are also being owed.”
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