Following directive by the National Secretariat of the Nigeria Labour Congress that States who are being owed salaries should embark on strike, the Plateau State Government has appealed to Nigeria Labour Congress in the State to step down their propose strike action in the State, saying the present administration is committed towards meeting the demands and aspiration of the civil servants.

The appeal was made by the Special Adviser to the Governor, Mr. Yakubu Jang, in a chat with journalists in Jos, Tuesday.

Following directive by the National Secretariat of the Nigeria Labour Congress that States who are being owed salaries should embark on strike, the Plateau State Government has appealed to Nigeria Labour Congress in the State to step down their propose strike action in the State, saying the present administration is committed towards meeting the demands and aspiration of the civil servants.

The appeal was made by the Special Adviser to the Governor, Mr. Yakubu Jang, in a chat with journalists in Jos, Tuesday.

He lamented how prompt payment of salaries by the Jonah Jang led administration is currently been affected by the dwindling Federal Allocation and urged the NLC to be patriotic by understanding with government in the turbulent economy hardship the country is facing.

Yakubu explained that the state civil servants have been paid up to October, 2014 while the Local Government Teachers are up to date except those who have not be cleared by the biometric capture committee or those whose appointment was terminated for using fake certificate.

According to him “In the state, salaries has been paid up to October 2014 and we are hoping to pay that of November next week. This was not done deliberately by anybody but was an issue that came up as a result of the dwindling Federal Allocation, money giving to states has been dropping consistently in the last seven months due to fall in Oil prize and it might likely go worst, this is the situation of the state civil servants.

“On the other hand, we said we have seen the benefits of biometric which enable government to know its staff strength and we implement it at the Local Government level and now we are at the Plateau State Universal Basic Education.

“We heard that Teachers have not been paid for Seven Months, I want to make it clear that this administration has been very responsible one since inception.

“We were giving about 18, 000 names of verified, but on the total staff strength we understand that there were about 21, 000. We found out that some people had issues with their certificates, there are people who graduated from the same Institution but their certificates are different, we then send to the institutions to verify if those in questions were there students.

“Most of these certificates came from the University of Jos, about 1, 200 people we send to the University and only 800 people have been cleared and they are now on the pay roll.

“Another category is the Religious instruction Teachers which the governor has given the go ahead to pay them their salaries, so I can tell you tentatively that out of the 18, 000 names that were given to us, more than 16, 000 have been cleared and have received salary up to December, 2014. He maintained.

The Governor’s aide called on Plateau people to put heads together and map out strategy to overcome the turbulent economy hardship in the country rather than mobilising the civil servants to embark on strike.

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Unpaid Salaries: Jang Appeals to NLC not to Embark on Strike