Kogiflame.com
The Staff of the Kogi State Judiciary have been paid five months salaries following the completion of the staff biometric exercise.
Kogi State Government had in November 2018 initiated a policy of Biometric Data Capturing/Enrolment of State Workers aimed at deepening the verification of the current staff strength/wage bill and ensuring probity, accountability and transparency in the disbursement of salaries to State Workers. While the exercise was successfully implemented by the Executive and the Legislative arms of Government, the Judiciary owing to certain misunderstanding with respect to the exercise did not participate. The foregoing had led to non-payment of salaries of workers under the Judicial Arm of Government.
Succour however came the way of judiciary workers in the State when due to the efforts of the State Government, the intervention of the National Judicial Council and the co-operation of the Judiciary, the exercise commenced on Monday 15th July 2019 (8 months after the exercise was initiated).
The Honourable Commissioner for Finance, Asiwaju Mukadam Asiru while speaking to news men in Lokoja today confirmed that the Biometric Data Capture/Enrolment of judiciary staff had been completed and that Staff had been paid 5 months’ salary arrears while promising that other arrears will be paid shortly.
The Commissioner when asked why it took Government so long to resolve the issues and pay the workers, stated that Government had from the beginning appealed to the necessary parties on the need to put the welfare of the workers first but the appeals yielded solution as the Judiciary remained resolute in their resolve not to participate in the exercise.
While reacting to further questions, the Commissioner stated that His Excellency Alhaji Yahaya Bello cares so much about the welfare of workers and pensioners in the State and has and will continue to initiate and implement policies that will benefit them and improve their welfare. The Commissioner stated that the payment was not driven by any political consideration but by the need to immediately bring succour to the workers after the leadership of the Judiciary agreed to the conduct of the exercise.
He charged the people of Kogi State to keep faith with His Excellency Alhaji Yahaya Bello as he means well for all Kogites and is poised to doing all to improve their well-being. He finally urged Kogites to support and vote for the Governor in the upcoming elections to enable him consolidate on the good works he has started.
