Chairman of Lafia Local Government Council in Nasarawa State, Muazu Aminu Maifata said he needs ninety two million naira to pay staff salary.
He said that, “I inherited a large number of staff from my predecessors which made the monthly salary and wages to skyrocket from N100m to N200m.”
Maifata who is also the chairman of Nasarawa State chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, (ALGON) said, there are deductions called first-line charges which include one percent for staff training, salary to village and district heads, and pension.
The chairman said, political office holders receive their salaries because they are not main stream civil servants, that their salaries are statutory and would not be tempered with.
“Our salary is coming separate from salary of workers and again there was an agreement between Lafia Local Government Chairman and the various Unions and we resolved that salary should be kept pending when we got augmentation to avoid percentage payment.”
Aminu Maifata said he is trying to source for fund to pay salary.
He said the monthly internally generated revenue generated by the local government is one million naira which was channeled to the daily running of office which he said include fueling of standby generator.
It could be recalled that two days ago, staff of Doma Local Government locked up their chairman over delay in payment of salary.
When contacted, Information officer of Ministry for Local Government, Ibrahim Shigafatta, did not answer calls to react on the matter.