The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) in Benue State has threatened to down tools if the state government fails to restore promotions and all the arrears of consolidated enhanced allowances removed from their May and June 2023 salaries, among other demands.
The State Chairman of NUT, Levi Terna Akuma, in a telephone conversation with journalists in Makurdi on Tuesday, emphasised that their promotions were legally carried out by the past administration.
Akuma had in a communique earlier issued after the union’s emergency State Executive Council meeting in Makurdi also signed by the acting secretary, Jeremiah Ochonu, called on Governor Hyacinth Alia to restore all the promotions of teachers which it reversed and direct the payment of their arrears within the stipulated time.
The union contended the delay in the release of the circular on tenure elongation of primary school teachers (40 years of service and 65 years of chronological age) as spelt in the Harmonized Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria, Act 2022 through a circular letter which was domesticated, assented and gazetted by the Benue State Government among others.
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It also faulted the removal of alleged 2,500 ghost workers from payroll and urged the state government to release the names of all those removed from the payment vouchers of May and June 2023 for clarity.
Meanwhile, the state’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Publicity Secretary, Bemgba Iortyom, has called on the governor to heed the ultimatum and reverse all the decisions he had taken against the interest of the state.