Plateau gov alleges: I inherited N11bn unpaid salaries from Lalong

The Governor of Plateau State, Caleb Mutfwang, on Monday, said that the immediate past administration led by Simon Lalong left a debt burden to the tune of N11 billion as unpaid salaries of workers.

Mutfwang disclosed this on Monday in Jos while addressing the citizens during an event organised by the state-owned media in conjunction with the office of the Director of Press and Public Affairs to the Governor to mark the Democracy Day celebration.

He said out of a wage of N2.9bn for the month of February 2023, only N900 million was paid to the workers by the past administration.

The Governor said “Over the years, Plateau state had deviated from the right paths and that is why we decided to steer the state to the right. With the little we have seen since taking over, there is a lot of work to be done. We inherited a civil service on strike. Out of a wage of N2.9bn for February 2023, only N900 million was paid. As of now, I can tell the people of Plateau state without politicking that we are owing salaries up to May to the tune of N11bn and what we inherited in the coffers of the Plateau state Government is N1.1bn”

The Governor said he did not pressurise the workers who are currently on strike to return to their duty posts because he was sourcing for money to enable him to pay them their entitlements before they could resume by the end of the month.

He also clarified that he did not sack the workers recruited into the civil service by his predecessor but only suspended them to pave the way for investigation because of irregularities perpetrated by the past government during their recruitment.

“We did not sack the workers but only suspended the recruitment exercise because we discovered that some of them who were employed by the past administration had their employment letters backdated. This is wrong. So, we are investigating the matter to ensure that laid down rules and regulations are followed,” the governor stated. Punch