By Noah Ocheni, Lokoja
The Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress NLC, Kogi state chapter, Amari Gabriel on Thursday in Lokoja appealed to kogi state government to urgently pay outstanding backlog gratuity of retirees to alleviate the suffering of retired civil servants in the state.
Amari who made the call in his speech to mark this year’s Workers Day celebration held at the Muhammadu Buhari’s Event Centre on Thursday in Lokoja said the arrears has accumulated in billions of naira at the moment.
“We are also concern about their faith in view of their plight having dedicated the greater part of their youthful years towards the development of the State with nothing to fall back to after retirement Safe for Hope.”
“We humbly request and appeal for concerted efforts towards earing and offsetting the accumulated gratuity through the use of funds providers and or bonds with favourable terms between the state government and the Organized Labour.”
“However, 1 salute the courage and resilience of all Kogi State workers for being positive and keeping faith alive in the midst of prevailing harsh economic realities and to my fellow Comrades I appreciate you all for believing in our leadership and Struggles thus far”
He also urged the Kogi State Government to deepen its commitment to the welfare of its workforce beyond salary payments.
“While the timely payment of workers’ salaries is commendable and appreciated, workers face daily hardships exacerbated by high transportation costs, skyrocketing food prices, and poor access to basic infrastructure such as water and housing”
