23 states in Nigeria currently owing workers' salaries, number of months being owed

According to reports from NULGE, 23 states of the federation currently owe local government workers’ arrears of salary, ranging from one to 16 months. Ibrahim Khaleel, the national president of the union, stated this in a statement issued on Monday, June 26, in Abuja. According to Vanguard, Mr Khaleel said that Bayelsa state is owing local council workers the most with between 10 and 16 months unpaid. Below is the full list of states and amounts they owe compiled by NAIJ.com:
1. Bayelsa - Between 10-16 months
2. Kogi - Between 7-15 months
3. Delta - Between 8-14 months
4. Kaduna - 12 months
5. Oyo - 3-11 months
6. Edo - 10 months
7. Abia - 5-9 months
8. Kwara - 2-9 months
9. Benue - 9 months
10. Nasarawa - 7 months
11. Ondo - 6 months
12. Ekiti - 6 months
13. Imo - 6 months
14. Zamfara (Has not started implementing minimum wage)
15. Adamawa - 4 months
16. Rivers - 4 months
17. Akwa Ibom - 4 months
18. Ebonyi - 4 months
19. Plateau - 4 months
20. Taraba - 3 months
21. FCT, Abuja - 3 months
22. Cross River (700 staff members are owed between one and three months)
23. Ogun (Has not also remitted its deduction for seven months)

Mr Khaleel called on the governors of the states to offset the salaries and other allowances of local government workers with the second tranche of the Paris Loan Refund released to them. According to him, failure to do so, would make the union mobilise and shut down all local government councils in the country. “We want to state in strong term that no governor should either divert or tamper with the fund. This should be an avenue where the backlog of arrears of salaries owed the local government workers and some other welfare packages should be settled.
“Such as leave bonus, arrears of promotion benefits, arrears of annual increment and non-implementation of minimum wage most especially in Zamfara State are resolved and paid.
“We, therefore, use this medium to appeal passionately to the state governors to use this second tranche of Paris club loan refund to clear the backlog of arrears of outstanding salaries,” he said.
He added that the union will not tolerate a situation where any state governor will hide under any guise to deny local government workers their legitimate salaries and allowances.
Labour unions have called on the EFCC and the ICPC to probe the states which defaulted in the first tranche of the N516bn Paris Club loan refund.

Source: Naij.com