The Jigawa state government has spent over N60.8 billion on salaries and wages of its 61, 000 staff in the payroll of the three arms of the state government.
This was disclosed by the state’s Head of Civil Servant (HoS), Alhaji Inuwa Tahir on Thursday while speaking to newsmen in reactions to an online media report which says the state (Jigawa) is among the states that could not pay workers salaries.
Tahir said: “The state government is not owning workers salary and the report is a lie and unjustified.”
The Head of Service explained that “since the inception of present administration under governor Muhammadu Badaru Abubakar the civil servants in the state were receiving their salary on every month promptly and at when due.”
Alhaji Inuwa Tahir expressed dismay on the online media report which included Jigawa state among the 33 states who cannot pay workers salary.
According to him, “the media is ignorant of what is happening in the state and are not conversant with the good programs and policies of the present government.”
He maintained that “since the coming of this government, the governor made it mandatory to pay workers salaries on the 25th of every month and any worker in the state can testify to that.”
Tahir stated further that the state is one among the states rejected to collect bailout from the federal government before paying the workers salary.
The Head of Service added that “the sum of N3.8b is being paid monthly as salary to 61,000 workforce across the three arms of government in the state apart from monthly pension and gratitude of retirees and death benefits. We don’t have any outstanding debt for pension and salary our record is there for anyone to check.”
Tahir asked the media to retract the report and apologise without further delay or to face legal action.
He advised media managers to always be objective and factual in their reports.
The Nation