Former local government councilors in Niger State who served between 2016 and 2019 took to the streets of Minna, the state capital, on Thursday to protest non-payment of their benefits which they said amounted to N1.27 billion.
The ex-councilors who thronged Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in Minna, said they had prevailed on the state government to pay the outstanding benefits owed them without success.
“We are former local government councilors who served from 2016 to 2019. We are here to protest non-payment of our benefits by the Niger State government. We have met with the stakeholders such as the state governor, Alhaji Abubakar Bello, Chief of Staff and the Speaker of the State Assembly, but nothing has been done,” said Malam Garba Umar who spoke on behalf of the 274 former councilors.
He listed the benefits to include allowances on furniture, severance, medical and accommodation, which he said were yet to be paid despite reported directives by state governor to the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Malam Abdulmalik Daji, to effect payment.
Umar, said under the arrangement, each councilor would receive over N4.6 million amounting to N1.27 billion for the 274 councilors. According to him, the protest would continue until the benefits are paid. “We will continue to lay siege to the Ministry for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs until our monies are paid”.
However, the state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Malam Abdulmalik Daji, who admitted that the former councilors were being owed some allowances, said the inability of the state government to offset the benefits, was not deliberate.
He attributed the delay in the payment to the shortfall in funds accruable to the state from the Federation Account Allocation occasioned by the global COVID-19 pandemic.
“Again apart from COVID-19, the insecurity in parts of the state is greatly taking a toll on the finances of the ministry for local because a lot of resources are being channeled to tackling the insecurity and I can tell you that it has not been easy.
“You know that the ministry for local government does not get intervention from anywhere either international donor or anywhere, the ministry relies solely on federal allocations. It is from there that salaries of primary schools teachers are paid, it is from there that primary healthcare members of staff are paid and from there that the eight emirate councils emoluments are paid.
