Date: 2018-02-24

Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress in Kwara State, Alhaji Yakeen Agunbiade, on Friday pleaded with the state governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, to address all issues relating to the salaries of local government workers and entitlements of pensioners.

Agunbiade spoke during the opening session of the 40th anniversary of the NLC in Ilorin, the capital.

Ahmed said that the state government was working towards paying part of the salary arrears of LG workers, and that his administration would use the N6bn still expected to address workers' needs and others.

A guest speaker at the event, Dr. Moses Adebisi, said corruption in the civil service, fall in global oil prices and bloated workforce had all combined to increase the plight of workers.

Adebisi, a lecturer at the University of Ilorin, spoke on the topic: "The Nigerian Labour Congress and 40 years of working class struggles in Nigeria."

According to him, the inability of many local and state governments to pay salaries of workers was lamentable, adding that 29 out of the 36 states of the federation owed employees several months' salaries.

Speaking further, Adebisi said there was leadership failure and low morale of workers in the country as a result of frustration, unpaid salaries, and others.

Meanwhile, Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Dr. Ali Ahmad, has said that the age-long power supply crisis in Kulende in Ilorin will soon be addressed.

He spoke in Ilorin while receiving a petition from the people of Zango community over the protracted poor power supply in the area.

Ahmad disclosed that power substations would be constructed in four locations in the metropolis.

According to him, the Federal Government will commence one of the projects in Kulende in the next few months and that the power substations, when completed, will permanently resolve the problem of poor power supply in the area.

The legislator attributed the problem in the area to lack of investment in the sector. He said the government was genuinely committed to resolving it and had earmarked N1bn for the procurement of more transformers in the 2018 budget of the state.