KOGI Gets N20B Federal Government Bailout Fund

Kogi State government Sunday confirmed it
has received N20 billion out of the N50 billion
bailout funds approved for it by the
federal government to offset outstanding
salaries owed workers in the state.
Governor Yahaya Bello, who confirmed this
during the occasion of this year’s Workers’
Day celebration, expressed his determination
to ensure the fund is efficiently disbursed to
offset outstanding
salaries and emoluments of workers.
“This week we received approval to draw
down on the first tranche of our Bailout
Funds from the Federal Government. This will
amount to about N20bn. We will draw down
on the balance of about N30bn as we meet
the milestones for implementation of the first
tranche as set by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
According to him the previous administration
could not access the
bailout fund because its application to the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was “fraught
with irregularities and shoddily done”, adding
the present administration had to start from
the scratch.
While assuring all workers in the state of
better days, governor Bello called on the
leadership of the Academic Staff Union of
Kogi State University to call off its ongoing
strike action to enable students continue
their studies.
Bello, who said his administration was
determined to stamp out ‘ghost workers’
from the payroll of the state government,
charged all genuine workers to ensure they
present themselves for the ongoing screening
exercise.
“No more will people sit in Pay Offices and
fabricate thousands of names, add them to
the nominal roll and siphon Kogi State
resources with them on a monthly basis. No
more will people sit down in Lagos, Abuja,
even abroad, and receive bank alerts for
salaries from the Kogi State Government.
“No more will Kogi State pay salaries to
ghost-workers who are ‘serving’ in non-
existing institutions discovered all over the
state by the Screening Committee. We are
dismantling all of that satanic
infrastructure. Our people will no longer be
robbed”, he said.
The governor on the occasion donated two
buses to the Kogi State
Chapters of the Nigeria Labour Congress
(NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to
assist the unions in their operations.
Earlier, State Chairman Nigeria of Labour
Congress (NLC), Comrade Onuh Edoka, said
workers in the state were going
through ‘trying times’ and urged the state
government to conclude the ongoing
screening exercise and punish those found
culpable.
The organised Labour demanded for payment
of 27.5% Specific Teachers’ Allowance for
secondary school teachers just as it called
for improved welfare for workers in some
sectors of the state to ensure better service
delivery.