By Anayo Okoli

UMUAHIA—AMID protests and complaints from angry workers over non-payment of arrears of their salaries, Abia State government, weekend, said it had cleared all the arrears of 64 Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, remaining four MDAs.

Ikpeazu

The government also said that the money for the payment to workers of the remaining four MDAs was already in the bank awaiting clearance before disbursement.

According to a statement by Sam Hart, Senior Special Assistant, SSA, to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu on Public Communications, government had met the deadline of October ending it set for itself to clear the arrears of the workers’ salaries following the receipt of N14.152 billion bailout fund from the Federal Government.

According to the statement: “There are approximately 13,000 Primary School Teachers in Abia State. Government has effectively cleared the backlogs of salaries of over 11,000 teachers. The payment of the remaining 2,000 is being delayed because of the wrong account number and other irregular details. All those who are yet to receive their salaries should please approach their banks for regularization of their details.

“Government wishes to notify the general public that the current strike by staff of the Abia State University has nothing to do with salary arrears as government has paid its subvention to the institution up to date. The strike was occasioned by some demands made by the academic staff to the school authority which are yet to be met.

“For the Health Management Board, four months arrears have been paid. The 5th and 6th month has been lying in the bank. The staff of the board have been slow in computing their outstanding and whenever they conclude, the funds can be accessed at the bank.

“The Abia State government reiterates its call on the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, to cooperate with it to ensure a sustainable salary payment model for the Local Governments. Government commends staff of Umuahia South Local Government Area, who have since undergone verification and restates its directive to staff of other local governments to do the same.

“On pensions, government has paid up till July 2015. August and September have been sent to the bank and can be accessed from next week. The bailout Disbursement Committee had challenges with some pensioners due to wrong data imputation and urges any pensioner yet to be paid to please approach the bank for correct data imputation.”

The Sub-treasuries are yet to submit Pension arrears data for April 2014 to April 2015 and once the data comes in, the committee will ensure full payment to all concerned.