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By Wole Mosadomi

Minna – The 25 Local government areas of Niger State collected the sum of N6.4b as their share of the Paris Club disbursement from the state government last year.

The state Commissioner for Local government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Zakari Jikantoro, who made this known while addressing journalists in Minna, said the money was expended on clearing backlog of several months’ salaries owed their staff.

He explained that as at today, the state government is not indebted to any staff including the teachers in all the twenty five Local government areas of the state.

“Most of those complaining of non payment are those who were dropped after discovering that they had fake credentials coupled with many other irregularities and I am calling on those who have genuine cases to come to me directly so that we can settle the problems once and for all,” the Commissioner explained.

Alhaji Jikantoro also disclosed  that the ministry has proposed a budget of over N52.8b for the 2018 fiscal year for the 25 LGs in the state. The budget proposal for the same Councils for last year stood at N52.3b. The commissioner said in an effort to improve the revenue profile of the councils, the state government is considering the engagement of external tax consultants.