Workers in Enugu State under the aegis of the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council on Monday begged the Central Bank of Nigeria to release to the state its portion of the Federal Government’s bailout funds.
The Enugu State Government’s request to obtain a sum of about N14.2bn bailout funds through the CBN was approved by the state executive council and the House of Assembly in September.
The government said the money would be used to offset outstanding salaries and also fund infrastructural and developmental projects.
However, in a statement jointly signed by their chairman and secretary, Chukwuma Igbokwe and Theo Obasiani, respectively, the workers expressed concerns over the delay in the release of the money to the state.
They lamented that the development had turned them into debtors.
“The prolonged delay since the announcement of the approval of the bailout fund is affecting the social and economic lives of the workers. Workers have resorted into borrowing.
“The non-release of the funds has brought untoward hardship to the workers as creditors kept harassing, insulting and threatening them on the grounds that they have been paid,” the workers said in the statement.
The statement added, “The council strongly condemns the non-release of the funds to Enugu State Government and calls for the immediate release of the funds to the state to enable her discharge her statutory responsibilities to the workers.
“The continuous devaluation of the naira and the galloping inflation which weakened the purchasing power of the national currency have made the non-release of the funds counter-productive.”
In the same vein, the workers also urged the state government to apply all necessary measures to recover every dime stolen from the public treasury and prosecute the culprits.
