Abia State Government has received a total of N3 billion as its own share of the bailout fund to clear salary arrears owed workers in the state.
The Special Assistant to the governor on media, Mr. Ugochukwu Emezue made this revelation while speaking with journalists in Umuahia.
Emezue said the money is just half of what is owed workers which is N6 billion.
He said “The government has received the bailout fund, it is in the neighbourhood of N3 billion. Abia needs about N6 billion to clear the arrears. The money is here and Governor Okezie Ikpeazu is looking inwards to augment the money and clear the arrears.”
When asked why some workers haven’t received theirs, he said “The reason is that government is carrying out workers verification; the workers that have not completed the exercise are those who have not received current salaries, those who have done theirs have since received their current salaries.
He said workers who have completed their “verification exercise would start receiving payment alerts by tomorrow (Tuesday) and urged those yet to comply to do so in order to assist the governor to build a civil service that is proactive and, dynamic and compliant.”
He added that the state govenor, Okezie Ikpeazu will not owe any genuine worker.