Kogi govt has met the demands of workers, says group

A group of Kogi state civil servants says the government has met the terms of the agreement it had with workers, accusing the leadership of organised labour of “needlessly” extending the industrial action embarked upon almost two weeks ago.

The group said this while addressing a media parley at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) press centre in Lokoja on Thursday.

Cyril Ukwenya, leader of the group,  said government has agreed that all workers on compulsory leave will be called back.

According to Cyril, dates and schedules of payments for all outstanding salaries and leave bonuses will be published, adding that government has resolved that no genuine worker will be laid off.

“Salaries of LGA teachers and pensioners will be returned to SUBEB and the Bureau of Local government pensions,” he said.

“During the last administration of Captain Wada, the ministry of science and technology proposed to supply laptops to all the teachers in the State, so as to boost their teaching skills but the labour leaders getting to know about this, saw it as an opportunity to make money on all workers and eventually hijacked the idea by convincing governor who gave them approval to go ahead.

“These said laptops were given to workers at the rate more than 300% of the market price.

“The present labour leaders have been in office for about seven to eight years now. If we go by the above exposition, this means the union dues of workers deducted to labour is approximately 4.6 billion naira.”