Workers set to shut down Kogi state over non payment of 3 Months salary

The lingering face-off between the Kogi State Government and workers in the state, is taking a new dimension as the workers have threatened to lockdown the state if the three months salaries being owed them are not paid.
Wondering why the government was unable to pay the workers, labour challenged the government to publicly explain how it expended the revenue that accrued to the state from October to December 2015.
The workers, who spoke under the auspices of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Joint Negotiating Council (JNC), said they would take to the streets if their outstanding salaries are not paid.
The Chairman of the NLC in the State, Onuh Edoka, who spoke on behalf of the workers, lamented that the people went home hungry last December and celebrated a bleak Christ¬mas following the non-pay¬ment of their salaries.
He regretted that the state Governor, Capt Idris Wada, reneged on his promise to pay the money during a meeting he held with the leadership of the labour unions before the end of 2015.
According to him, during the meeting, the workers demanded for the pay-ment of their salary arrears for the state workers, local government workers and the primary school teachers, implementation of harmonisation of pension arrears and consolidated salary structure.
Other demands are promotion from 2012 - 2015, full implementation of minimum wage, weigh-in allowance for journalists and reinstatement of the sacked workers of Kogi Transport Company.
Edoka added that despite the fact that the State government got N2.6 billion as allocation in December, it was unable to pay the workers, accusing it of deliberately withholding the salary of the workers.