Benue civil servants are celebrating the first alerts of salary payment in the last seven months , a promise made possible by Governor Hyacinth Alia who assumed office on May 29, 2023.
In keeping to his promise during electioneering,Governor Alia has put smiles on the faces of Benue state workers, as many of them have started receiving bank alerts of payment of their salaries arrears.
The state government staff are celebrating and jubilating in Makurdi the state capital as some have received bank alerts of salary payment from the State Government for the first time in seven months of working without salaries.
Some of the workers who spoke to journalists in Makurdi, the State capital, on Monday, said they started receiving alerts on Sunday.
According to Oraduen, a worker under the state government’s employ, it felt so good to get paid after working without pay for the past seven months.
“I feel so happy with the payment of this one–month salary. 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 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.
Another worker, Fidelis, also said he got a one-month payment of his salary on early today, after being owed for eight months.
Fidelis, alongside another worker, Daniel, expressed delight that the one-month salary paid to them would cushion the effect of hardship which their families have been through in the past months of unpaid salaries.
The State’s Chairman of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Terungwa Igbe, also confirmed that the workers have been paid one month salary.
Meanwhile, a few others including teachers and pensioners told journalists that they were still waiting to be paid.
During his state-wide campaigns leading up to the March 18 gubernatorial elections, Father Alia had made the non-payment of pension and salaries by the immediate past Administration of Samuel Ortom one of his campaign issues.
Barely three weeks after his election as governor of Benue state, Alia had, during a meeting with former President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, lamented that civil servants in the state were being owed a backlog of salaries, just as those entitle to pensions had not been paid.
This statement did not go down well with the then governor, Samuel Ortom, particularly the aspect where Father Alia accused him of leaving Benue in what he described as Intensive Care unit (ICU).
Again, a few weeks before his swearing in as governor, Father Alia had, during the 2023 International Workers’ Day celebration in Makurdi, assured Benue workers, to be more patient as, according to him, the good days were already in sight.
On the occasion, Father Alia, while acknowledging the civil service as the engine room of every functional government, decried the way and manner in which workers in Benue state had been treated, referring, apparently, to the issue of unpaid salaries and pensions, as well as gratuities by the then Ortom administration.
“Our workers are the inspiration for all of us; their hard work and dedication motivate others to work for the growth and development of the state,” Alia said in the goodwill message signed by one of his media aides.
Also speaking with, the Chairman of the Concerned/Aggrieved Pensioners in Benue State, Comrade Akosu Ioream, said: “Local government pensioners of primary school board have started receiving alert but that is not a verified news. As for Benue State pensioners which I’m the chairman, we have not started receiving any alert; we having our exco meeting now, so if something like that has 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 ghost pensioners and other irregularities as our voucher is being prepared. I also heard that the governor wants to pay us more than three months so they are preparing vouchers. But, there are no yet authentic information as to when and how we will start getting our pension alerts,” Comrade Akosu said.
(With additional report by Voice of Naija)