NLC to Ayade: You are a disappointment

Edem Bassey, Calabar

The Cross River State Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said that the State Governor, Prof Ben Ayade, who was some time ago described as best labour friendly governor by the congress, was a disappointment.

The vice chairman of the state NLC, Comrade Edim Oyongha, said the governor has failed to utilize the Paris Club Fund refund for the purpose it was meant for.

The labour leader told Daily Times in an interview in Calabar that the Paris Club Fund was specifically meant for the payment of gratuity, but unfortunately, the pensioners have been denied their entitlement from the fund.

“The Paris Club fund was sent to the Cross River State Government, just like it was sent to other states for a particular purpose of paying pensioners’ gratuity. Unfortunately, the pensioners have not been paid for some years now.

“If you remember, we were on strike some time ago which we resumed on July 2. The reason for that strike was mainly because of the gratuity issue as we were told that the federal government has sent in money for the payment.

“When we called off the strike, we had an agreement with the state government. They said they will implement and pay the gratuity. So far, we have waited for about four months now, and nothing seems to be coming.

He said the congress first wrote to the state government about the non-utilization of the fund for the purpose it was meant for, and they were called for a meeting on August 12 with the Finance Commissioner, the Head of Service and other government officials and the given four days within which they would paid the gratuity, adding that after two months, they have not paid.

Comrade Oyongha expressed regret over the Ayade’s administration explaining that given the non release of the pensioners’ gratuity, NLC followed it up with a letter asking why the government didn’t pay.

“This culminated into another meeting with the deputy governor and in that meeting, they promised us, they will pay, as soon as the meeting ended, the next day, what we heard was that they were calling pensioners to come for screening.

“So we went to Accountant General and told him that, that was not what we discussed yesterday with the deputy governor, why are you calling for screening, what is the problem, they said there was fraud, we say Ok, in the very first instance, when they brought this Paris Club, we had a meeting with the Governor right inside his office, he said we should form a committee which we did, local government were there, commissioner for Finance, Head of Service etc and we all agreed for release of money, what happen?” he queried.

The Vice Chairman, who is also the Chairman of State Negotiating Council, said that Labour suggested to government that she should not pay gratuity through any bank and call individuals, after screening, check whatever is due for him and issue him a cheque.

“They didn’t take that, the next thing we heard was that, His Excellency has released N1.6billion to pay our pensioners including severing allowance for local government staff, we waited, we didn’t see anything.

“Disappointingly, we heard that His Excellency want to pay 20% of gratuity to retirees and Labour kicked against it because we don’t imagine people collecting 20%, not even half, we say they should not take that and that was where we are,” he lamented.