Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed said the recent shortfall in federal allocation to Kwara State was responsible for the delay in the payment of workers’ salaries, particularly the local government employees.

The governor, who was in Saudi Arabia for the lesser Hajj, when the dispute over the delay in payment of workers came to the fore, disclosed this at the weekend while speaking with journalists at the Government House in Ilorin.

Ahmed said the shortfall had been occurring since May, adding that the situation was made worse because the allocation also came late, as against what it used to be.

"There had been drops in the allocation to the states, and delays in allocation meetings and allocation of funds to the local governments. These shortfalls since May, June and July this year have not been helpful," he said.

The governor said though the local governments had been charged to look inward for resources to meet their needs, yet, the state could not leave them to the task particularly because of the need to ensure discipline in spending and prioritising their projects.

Not only this, he said they were made to form a joint account with the state whereby the councils contributed only N800m while the state government complemented it with N2.5bn.