Twenty–One out of the 25 local government councils in Delta State cannot pay monthly salaries to their workers due to lack of funds, investigation has revealed.
Workers of the affected councils, Isoko North, Isoko South, Oshimili North, Oshimili South, Aniocha North, Aniocha South, Ika North-East, Ika South, Patani, Ukwuani, Ndokwa East, Ndokwa West, Ughelli North, Ughelli South, Okpe, Sapele, Ethiope East, Ethiope West, Udu, Warri South and Uvwie, have been on strike since May 11.
Only four councils, Warri South-West, Warri North, Burutu and Bomadi have been paying their workers, but there are fears that they will join others, as their allocations dwindle.
At press time, some of the councils, which had been paying their workers half salary for more than a year owed seven months arrears, while some have not paid at all in the last five months.
Chairman of Association of Local Government Chairmen of Nigeria, ALGON, in the state, Sir Itiako Ikpokpo, told Vanguard that the situation was very disturbing to council chairmen, blaming the problem on the deduction of primary school teachers’ salaries from the allocations of the councils.
Ikpokpo, who is the chairman of Isoko South council, said that until the Federal Government takes over the responsibility of paying primary school teachers and grants autonomy to councils, the third tier of government will remain dysfunctional.
The governor of the state, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, had stepped into the row between the councils and their workers, led by the state chair of National Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, Mr. David Ofoeyeno.
Governor Okowa met with the council chairmen on the matter some days after he assumed office, after which his deputy governor, Mr. Kingsely Otuaro, took over to explore short and long-term measures to the problem.
The deputy governor had also met with representatives of the council chairmen, NULGE, Directorate of Local Government, Accountant-General of the state and others to work out solutions to the problem. After the meeting, he inaugurated a sub-committee headed by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Festus Agas, to work out the details.
However, Ofoyeno, also a parallel chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, in the state, told Vanguard, yesterday, that the state government only appealed to the workers to call off the strike with nothing concrete on the payment of salary, which is the main reason for their action.
