Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State has ordered the immediate commencement of payment of backlog of salaries to teachers and pensioners in the state, the state Commissioner for Information, Chief John Okiyi Kalu, has said.
According to Okiyi, the sum of N400,000,000 has been paid into a First Bank account for the payment of state pension while the Secondary Education Management Board account also received N426,000,000 for payment of secondary school teachers.
Okiyi who stated that pensioners and secondary school teachers should receive payment alerts on Thursday, said, “the state government also provided N236m for payment of subventions to some revenue generating parastatals in the state that are grappling with salary payment challenges”.
He further said that the above payments were distinct from the expected disbursement of the recently received third tranche Paris Club Refund of N5.715bn.
“Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, has given approval for N3.2bn of the Paris Club Refund to be used to further augment salary payments with emphasis on the teachers’ salary and state pensions and the disbursement will soon commence,” he added.
He assured Abia workers that Governor Ikpeazu is committed to their well-being, asserting, “the Governor delivered 100% of the second tranche of Paris Club Refunds of N5.715bn to workers as evidence, if any is required, of his love and commitment to them at a time no other state did same.
“It should also be noted that, that was even while he embarked on an unprecedented infrastructure renewal efforts that saw the state government funding Hartland-Setraco with N2bn to commence the reconstruction of Port Harcourt Road Aba as well as completing Ndi Oji/Ndi Okereke bridge to ease the travel pains of Arochukwu people”.
He listed other road construction projects currently ongoing in the state to include the Abiriba-Nkporo road, Aba road Umuahia reconstruction, total reconstruction of Faulks road, Aba with a 6.8-kilometre underground drain that has effectively defeated the flooding challenge at Ukwu Mango Ariaria area alongside other 85 ongoing road projects in the state.
The Commissioner promised to deliver a list of all the MDAs that have received November and December 2017 salary to newsmen as proof that more than 70% of the state workforce are up to date with salary payments as well as confirm the status of salary payments in al the local government areas of the state.
