Workers celebrate after receiving first salary in 7 months

Workers in Benue State on Monday heaved a sigh of relief after receiving one month’s salary from the state government.

The state’s Chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Terungwa Igbe, confirmed to newsmen that workers have been paid one month’s salary.

Some workers in Makurdi also confirmed development, saying that they started receiving alerts on Sunday.

Oraduen, a worker under the state government’s employ, said it felt so good to get paid after working without pay for the past seven months.

“I got an alert at about 8pm on Sunday. And my spirit has come alive again.

“The situation was so bad before now such that I had to park my car and trek.

“Now, I can put my car in use; send some money to my sick my mother and buy food for my household.

“I’m not the only one excited, everyone in my office feels good too and those who haven’t been coming to work are at their duty post this morning.

“We hope to get another three months of salary before the end of the week,” Oraduen who didn’t want his first name mentioned, said.

Also, another worker, Fidelis, said he got a one-month alert of payment of his salary on Monday morning after being owed for eight months.

Fidelis, along with another worker, Daniel, expressed delight that the one-month salary paid to them would cushion the hardship that their families have been through in the past months of unpaid salaries.

However, few of the workers, including teachers and pensioners, said they are still waiting to be paid.

A teacher in one of the Primary schools in Makurdi, who just wanted to be identified as Doosuur, said they were hoping to be paid as well.

Also, the Chairman of the Concerned/Aggrieved Pensioners in Benue State, Comrade Akosu Ioream, said, “local government pensioners of the primary school board have started receiving alerts, but that is not verified news.

“As for Benue State pensioners, of which I’m the chairman, we have not started receiving any alert; we are having our exco meeting now, so if something like that had happened, I would have known.

“We’re hoping that any moment from now, we will get our alerts; I hear that the delay is because they want to rid us of ghost pensioners and other irregularities as our voucher is being prepared.

“I also heard that the governor wants to pay us for more than three months, so they are preparing vouchers.

“But there is no yet authentic information as to when and how we will start getting our pension alerts.”