For residents of the 16 Local Government Areas of Kwara State, happy days are here again as the Chairmen under the State chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) have declared their decision to commit the sum of N7.4billion to the payment of gratuity arrears from 2011 and execution of various priority projects.
The money, totaling N7,430,264,266.68 is the signature bonus that the councils recently received from the Federation Account.
The State Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Hon Abubakar Abdullahi Danladi said in a statement that the council chairmen unanimously allocated N4bn of their ‘signature bonus’ to offset a part of the gratuity arrears of over N34Billion.
Danladi said the payment will spread across all the local government retirees with outstanding gratuities.
“This payment will cover the 2011 gratuity obligations and more. The disbursement will be done in a way that everyone will benefit,” the ALGON chairman said.
“We also agreed that the total sum of N3.36bn will go into executing projects that each local government considers to be its priority.”
Danladi said this decision, taken at their recent meeting, aligns with their core values of service to the people at the grassroots, including workers who spent their youthful years serving their respective local government areas.
