NULGE shuts down Delta Councils over salary arrears

The Delta State Council of National Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, today shut down no less than eight local government councils in the state over the non-payment of salaries and other entitlements of local government workers since December 2013.

The indefinite strike action which is coming on the heels of a meeting held Friday February 21 at Ughelli North local government secretariat by the State Working Committee, NWC, of NULGE affects local government councils such as Warri South, Uvwie, Udu, Ika South, Ukwuani, Ughelli North, Ethiope East and Oshimili North.

The State Working Committee of NULGE had in statement signed by its Secretary, Apostle G. Wilson directed the Local Executive Committees of the Union in the affected Councils to ensure that beginning from Thursday February 27, all staff of the affected local government councils remain at home until their salaries and other entitlements “are fully paid up to date”.

When Fresh Angle visited Warri South, Uvwie and Udu local government councils on Thursday February 27, branch executives of the union, including some members of the State Working Committee were seen preventing council staff and other state as well as federal parastatal public servants from entering the council secretariats.

Investigations reveal that the affected local government councils have large concentration of primary school  teachers which often take a major chunk of their monthly allocations, while the transition committee chairmen of the councils who appear financially reckless do little or nothing about the internally generated revenue going to private pockets.

In another development, the fuel scarcity that is currently hitting major cities and towns in Nigeria has crept into the twin cities of Warri and Effurun, with motorists as well as other PMS consumers buying the product for at-least N110 per litre in the few filling stations that are ready to dispense fuel.

Our Correspondent reports that the situation is so bad that consumers who use fuel at home to power their generators following the increasingly erratic power supply from Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC are resorting to buying fuel at black market for top-of- the roof prices, while vehicle owners who cannot afford black market prices are compelled to wait in long queues in the few filling stations ready to sell at N110 per litre as against the approved price of N97 per liter.

Already the cost of commercial transportation in Warri and Effurun have marginally moved up as a result of the fresh fuel crisis.

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