The Nation Newspaper

Tag: arrears

  • Nembe players protest 6 months salary arrears

    Nembe players protest 6 months salary arrears

    Players of Nembe City FC are protesting the non-payment of their salaries and other entitlements for the past six months.

    Some players of the club who don’t want their name mentioned for fear of being haunted allege that the club’s chairperson, Mrs. Baribote and her husband, Chief Victor Baribote Ramson are threatening to end their football career if they continue to protest against non- payment of accrued salaries and entitlements.

    They also alleged that the Baribotes have also threatened to take on any authority who tries to take side with the protesting players including the League Management Committee led by Nduka Irabor.

    The protesting players who are fourteen in number said that they are grappling with untold hardship and pressure from their various families over the continuous withholding of their money.

    The fourteen players are therefore calling on the League Management Committee (LMC) to come to their rescue and compel the club to pay them their money.

    “The second round of the domestic football season is about to finally kick off but there is no physical indication that the players will even be paid salaries and entitlements of the first round matches after about six months of delay,” one of the players lamented.

    There is palpable fear  that some of the players will boycott matches of the upcoming second round, unless authorities of the club pay them their overdue salaries.

    When confronted with the reports suggesting that the management is yet to pay the officials and players, three players, Israel Banigo, Israel Kagu and Miebaka Stowe among others affirmed that they have refused to have their usual training session as they protest over unpaid fees.

    All attempt to speak to the technical adviser of the team, Gabriel Umunna Samuel who also has been owed proved abortive as rumours of his exit rents the air.

  • Amosun directs OOU to pay arrears

    Amosun directs OOU to pay arrears

    Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun has ordered the management of the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, to effect the immediate payment of the outstanding one month salary arrears owed lecturers of the institution.

    Secretary to the State Government, Barrister Taiwo Adeoluwa in a statement issued in Abeokuta also said the governor has promised that all other outstanding arrears would be paid without delay.

    He stated that Amosun-led government inherited a backlog of arrears from the immediate past administration, many of which have been cleared.

    Adeoluwa said despite the significant infrastructural development initiatives going on across the state, the government does not owe salaries and was one of the first to show commitment to the new minimum wage in 2011.

    The SSG added that since its assumption, the Government had committed N1 billion to clear part of the accrued allowances, saying there was also an agreement with all the unions to commit a further N500 million towards the payment of related allowances.

    “In the 32 months of our administration, we not only had cleared between nine and 11 months of wages arrears left by the last government, the staffers of Olabisi Onabanjo University, and workers everywhere in Ogun State got their salaries. In OOU, some of the backlog of unpaid allowances (as distinct from monthly salary) that is now touted as the reason for the Monday protest action dated back to six to seven years.

    “Since we came on board, government had committed N1 billion to clear part of the accrued allowances. In addition, there is agreement with all the unions to commit a further N500 million this financial year towards the payment of related allowances,” Adeoluwa said.

     

  • Wogu gives NPA two weeks to settle salary arrears

    Labour and Productivity Minister, Chief Emeka Wogu, has given Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) two-week ultimatum to settle outstanding salaries and emoluments of tally clerks and onboard security men in maritime.

    The directive stemmed from an agreement reached at a stakeholders meeting convened by the government to address incessant threats and pockets of industrial unrest that occurred in the maritime sector .

    The union had, in a petition to President Goodluck Jonathan, alleged that NPA’s continuous indebtedness to the maritime workers had become unbearable. It lamented that the parastatal’s management spends about N300 million monthly to pay illegal employees known as cargo surveyors, who they described as layabouts.

    The labour minister had summoned the management of NPA, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) and other stakeholders to a meeting in Abuja to ascertain the causes of the ripples in the sector and how to avert the planned strike.

    Before the meeting, the union threatened to shut down the nation’s ports to protest unpaid salary arrears of members.

    President of the union, Anthony Nted, said the union decided to suspend the industrial action at the end of the stakeholders’ meeting presided over by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Clement Iloh.

    He said the stakeholders would reconvene to agree on when the payment would commence.

    “At the end of the meeting, it was resolved that the NPA would need two weeks to receive inputs from the ports, determine the cost implications of the payment of arrears, interface with the managing director of NPA and work out the modalities for payments accordingly.

    “The meeting also noted the issues of the non-payment of salaries to tally clerks and on-board security men in different parts of the country and the statement by the executive director, NPA, on the insufficiency of the national budget for NPA for that purpose.

    “Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity stressed the need to redress all issues pertaining to the payment of salaries where relevant and arrears of the agreed increment,” Nted said.

     

  • Coal Corporation pensioners seek monetisation of quarters, payment of 54 months arrears

    Pensioners of Nigerian Coal Corporation (NCC) occupying the corporation’s quarters in Enugu State have pleaded with the Presidency and the National Assembly to effect the monetisation of the quarters to them as it was done in other federal government parastatals.

    They also urged President Goodluck Jonathan to prevail on their mother ministry, the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development to clear the outstanding 54 months arrears of their pension.

    They complained that the ownership of the quarters was supposed to be transferred to them on the basis of monetisation, but that has yet to be implemented.

    The chairman of the NCC pensioners, Comrade Emmanuel Chima, who spoke in Enugu, told The Nation that parastatals under the ministry in other places like Aladja, Okaba and Ankpa, have all had their quarters monetised to the retirees occupying them.

    The NCC pensioners objected to the proposal of the Bureau of Public Enterprises and its consultant to auction the NCC quarters, Enugu in open market bargain.

    “At least, apart from monetising the quarters to us, the government can graciously concede the quarters to us as compensation having laboured and spent our youth in the service of our fatherland and having lived there for over 40 years,” suggested Chima.

    According to the pensioners’ chairman, “we are living in abject poverty because of the failure on the part of government to fulfill their promise of paying them their arrears of pensions. The next of kins of those who died as a result of hunger and want, after working in NCC, have been on our neck for nonpayment of their benefactors’ pensions.”

     

  • SWALLOWING THEIR VOMIT: NFF pays Keshi, others N40m arrears

    SWALLOWING THEIR VOMIT: NFF pays Keshi, others N40m arrears

    The leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation has directed its accounts department to pay all the four months outstanding salaries and allowances (N40 million) of the technical crew of the Super Eagles up to January 2013.

    According to findings at the Glasshouse secretariat of the NFF, the Chief Coach Stephen Keshi is expected to receive an arrears of N20 million, while his first assistant Daniel Amokachie will be paid N12 million. The two other assistants Ike Shorunmu and Sylvanus Okpala will be paid N6 million each.

    Confirming this to Sportinglife on Wednesday, Federation scribe, Musa Amadu who gave the directive said it was to ensure that the technical crew concentrates fully on the task ahead, which is winning the trophy.

    “ I have given directives that the salaries and allowance of the coaches be paid with immediate effect. We don’t want anything that will disturb them at the Nations Cup. We want them to concentrate fully on the task ahead. The accounts department is expected to credit their individual accounts before the end of business on Thursday (Today),” he stressed.

    This development confirms Sportinglife’s story which revealed that NFF was owing the technical crew four months salary. The football governing body widely denied the report which they described as mischievous and malicious.

  • Abia pensioners protest non-payment of five-month arrears

    Scores of Abia State pensioners yesterday protested the non-payment of their pensions in the last five months.

    The pensioners carried leaves and old bags as they marched on Umuahia, the state capital, at noon.

    Though the protest was peaceful, a police patrol team, led by John Madu, a Deputy Superintendant (DSP), tried to stop the pensioners from moving into the city to avoid hoodlums hijacking it.

    For several minutes, Madu tried to convince the pensioners to leave the road and stop obstructing traffic flow because a roundabout in the area serves motorists plying the Aba, Bende and Umuwaya roads.

    But the protesters refused.

    Motorists had to manoeuvre their way of the situation.

    The state chairman of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Chief Augustus Ikechukwu, told reporters that the pensioners had been living on promises and empty stomachs in the last five months.

    He said: “How can we eat? How can we train our children? Christmas is fast approaching. Pensioners have come under intense pressure to meet up with the demands of the Yuletide season.”

    The NUP chairman said the pensioners would only be pacified if they were paid at least three months arrears from the outstanding five months.

    Ikechukwu added: “It is the only way we will slow down in our agitation for our pension to be paid for the time being.”

    The Chairman of the state pension’s board, Chief Dan Egbogu, told reporters that the pensioners were being owed because of ongoing verification to ascertain authentic pensioners and the fakes.

    The board chairman said the government has been contending with bloated wage bills and pensions.

    He noted that there was need to streamline the payroll “so that at the end of the verification, what comes to us as wage bills will be a realistic figure we can work with”.

    Egbogu added: “Once the governor is able to establish that he is not releasing money to ghost workers and pensioners, the problem will be solved. I appreciate the difficulties that pensioners are facing and I sympathise with them. But they should be patient. We are working towards solving the problem.”

     

  • Edo Institute workers protest salary arrears

    Members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) at the Edo State-owned Institute of Technology and Management, Usen, yesterday protested three months’ salary arrears and poor conditions of service.

    The protesters, led by ASUP Chairman, Comrade Aghahowa Andy, marched on major streets in Benin, the state capital.

    They stopped on the premises of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Edo State Council, before proceeding to the Government House.

    The workers said they embarked on the peaceful protest to inform Governor Adams Oshiomhole of the “unwholesome condition they were subjected to by the school management”.

    They urged the government to intervene and ensure that their salaries are paid.

    Aghahowa said: “In the past three months, the workers have not received their salaries and we are aware that the state government pays N21 million subvention to the school monthly without default.

    “More so, workers in that school save money in their cooperative societies, so that they will be able to pay their children’s school fees, rent and do other things. As I speak with you, the management has seized that money, about N60 million, without our consent.”

    The protesters decried the lack of adequate accommodation, casualisation of workers, non-inclusion of workers in the State Pension Scheme, promotion without benefits and non-payment of 16 months’ salary arrears on the Consolidated Polytechnic/Colleges of Education Salary Structure (CONPCASS), among others.

    They said the process of appointment into the institution was marred by favoritism and irregularities.

     

  • Anambra police pensioners protest unpaid arrears

    •63 die of ‘starvation’
    •National Assembly, Obi petitioned

     

    Some retired police officers in Anambra State yesterday protested at Amawbia over the non-payment of their 15 months’ pension arrears from the Federal Government and the Police Pension Service Commission.

    The Chairman of the Association of Retired Police Officers of Nigeria (APRON), Chief Harold Chike Onyeonwu, a retired Deputy Superintendent (DSP), told reporters that they had not been paid their pension since August, last year.

    He wondered why the pensions should be withheld, despite the fact that the verification of pensioners was done in July, last year.

    Onyeonwu said at the last count, over 100 pensioners had died of starvation.

    The state chapter of the APRON said it has the records of 63 deaths of its members.

    The union leader said those without records of their deaths did not make formal entries with APRON but heard about their deaths informally.

    He said the families of the deceased members were being tossed up and down for the entitlements of their late breadwinners.

    Onyeonwu urged the Federal Government and the National Assembly to intervene in the matter to save the pensioners, many of who he said are on danger list.

    The APRON Chairman was with the Administrative Secretary of the union, Mr Nwobi Bernard, and another executive member, Chief Charles Onyechi, as well as Chief Chris Nnaemeka and Chief Godwin Obiorah.

    The union petitioned the National Assembly, urging its leadership to prevail on the Pension Office and the Police Service Commission to pay their arrears.

    The retired policemen also appealed to Anambra State Governor Peter Obi to make President Goodluck Jonathan intervene on the matter.

    He recalled that the police pensioners in the state converged at the police command on November 28 to protest the alleged ill-treatment meted out to them by the Federal Government and the Pension Office in the last 15 months.

    Onyeonwu wondered why a police commissioner who retired before 2006 should be paid a N93, 069.55 a month pension; an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), N57,953.06; an Inspector, N27,722.85; a Constable N5,560.

    According to him, their colleagues, who retired after the period under review, collect 10 times their pensions.