By; Mohammed Kawu, Bauchi.
Hundreds of Bauchi state civil servants and pensioners Saturday staged a peaceful protest to demand for the payment of their salaries and pensions.
The protesters who kindled their protest from the secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) along Railway road, marched more than three kilometers to the Government House, along Yakubun Bauchi road in the metropolis.
They lamented the failure of the state government to pay them their entitlements, saying that the government had no concern for the plight of workers and pensioners.
Some of them said they have not been paid for four to five months, and wondered why the government keeps verifying them times without number without necessarily paying them despite the fact that they have been cleared more than ones.
Bauchi workers and pensioners, who suspected foul play on the issue at stake, said the government has not been sincere with them.
“I have not been paid salary for the past five months, now I hardly feed myself and children. I was unable to pay fees for West African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO) for my children”, one of the female protesters cried out.
The newly appointed Acting Head of Service of the state, Alhaji Liman Bello said that the re-verification planned by the government could no longer hold, as he assured the protesters of their payments before the commencement of the forthcoming Ramadan period which commences in the next two weeks.
Meanwhile, the Bauchi state government has dispelled an online media report that it has misused the bailout funds from the Federal government amounting to N8.6 billion.
The online media has reported that a presidential investigation team will visit Bauchi on account of non-payment of workers’ salaries occasioned by the misused of the federal government bailout funds meant for that purpose.
A statement signed by the Press Secretary to the State Governor, Abubakar al-Sadique while dispelling the report described it as false and malicious.
Abubakar al-Sadique recalled that the Bauchi state government received N8, 609, 100, 000 federal government bailout funds and used N8, 521, 100, 000 to offset salary backlog.
He explained that Governor Mohammed Abubakar started the process of settling the outstanding salaries of civil servants even before the idea of the bailout was conceived.
