The House of Representatives has mandated its Ad Hoc
Committee on Bail-out Funds to investigate non-payment of salaries of Kogi
workers and report back within one
week.
The House also mandated the Central Bank Of Nigeria (CBN) to
within one week report and explain the utilization of Salary Bail-out Fund
given to states.
The directives followed a unanimous adoption of a Motion of
Urgent National Importance moved by Rep. Sunday Karimi (Kogi-PDP) at the
plenary presided by the Speaker, Mr Yakubu Dogara on Tuesday.
Moving the motion, Karim said in spite the federal statutory
allocation, salary bail-out funds and Paris Club refund received by Kogi
Government, non-payment of state and local government workers salaries
lingered.
He said Mr Edward Soje, a Director in the Kogi Civil Service
Commission committed suicide for not being able to meet his obligations as a
father and a husband.
The legislator said the deceased took his life after his wife
was delivered of a set of triplet at an Abuja hospital last week.
The lawmaker explained that the late senior civil servant was
being owed 11 months salary which made it difficult for him to meet his
responsibilities.
According to Karimi, the situation of Soje is the lot of the
majority of the civil servants and pensioners in the state.
He expressed concern that the state government had opposed to
and refused any authority to investigate the non-payment of staff salaries.
According to Karimi, if nothing is immediately done about the
situation in Kogi, more civil servants who were frustrated will commit suicide
In her contribution, Rep. Nnkiruka Onyejeocha (Abia-PDP), she
said it was sad for parents who worked for kogi government go several months
without pay.
Onyejeocha called on legislators to support the motion and
urged the committee to treat the matter with high speed.
Rep. Jimoh Olajide (Lagos-APC) commended the mover of the
motion for the courage to speak for the people of Kogi.
He said the function of government was basically to ensure
the welfare and security of the people.
According to Olajide, a situation where civil servants are
committing suicide, nobody knows what is next.
The lawmaker, who advised the three tiers of government to be
considerate and just, urged Nigerians not to commit suicide, no matter the
difficulty.
The House urged the Federal and State as well as Local
Governments to priorities payment of salaries.
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