The Kano State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress will be meeting on Friday over the decision of Governor Abba Yusuf to stop the salaries of 10,800 workers engaged by the administration of immediate-past governor Abdullahi Ganduje.
The Kano NLC Chairman, Kabiru Inuwa, told The PUNCH in a telephone interview that the union met on Tuesday, deliberated on the issue and fixed another meeting for Friday to make a definite resolution on the matter.
“We shall take a final decision on the issue after a meeting on Friday and we shall make whatever resolution we reach public,” Inuwa told our correspondent.
Prior to taking over the helm of affairs, Yusuf had accused Ganduje’s government of illegally employing over 10,800 workers in the twilight of his administration.
While briefing newsmen in Kano on Monday, the Accountant General, Abdulkadir Abdusalam, said the governor ordered his office to expunge the workers from the state’s payroll.
The Accountant-General said his office would carry out investigation to ascertain the authenticity of the affected workers’ engagement so as to remove those illegally recruited.
Abdulsalam also disclosed that all local government workers, who were converted to state workers by the former administration, would continue receiving their salaries, but based on local government level.
Meanwhile, Ganduje, on Wednesday, lamented what he described as policy reversal and retrogressive initiatives of the administration of the ruling New Nigeria People’s Party in Kano State.
The ex-governor said this in his Sallah message released by the immediate-past Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs, Mallam Muhammad Garba.
Ganduje sympathised with the 10,800 workers whose salaries were stopped particularly during the Eid Adha period, saying it was insensitive of the Yusuf administration.
Ganduje also expressed concern over the cancellation of schoolteachers’ promotion “on flimsy excuses.”
The statement quoted him as saying “the salary stoppage, which also affected other workers, particularly teachers some of whom were employed more than three months ago, has generated palpable fears in the state civil service for possible lay-offs in other sectors of the state civil service.”
“He stressed the need for unity, understanding and support for one another particularly in this period of economic and social insecurities,” the statement quoted him to have said.
