The governor had earlier bailed out the LGAs with N1.2 billion to settle their June salaries.
Hundreds of local government workers in Kano State are yet to be paid their June salaries less than 24 hours before the Sallah celebration being held this Wednesday.
These workers’ hopes of receiving their salaries since last Friday were met with disappointment.
The government under Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje considered the inability of the State's 44 local government areas (LGAs) to pay their workers’ salaries a failure. The governor had earlier bailed out the LGAs with N1.2 billion to settle their June salaries.
A source at the State Ministry of Local Government confirmed to SaharaReporters that some individuals who are under the control of the former governor of the State, present-day Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, are undermining the government’s efforts to settle the local government employees' salaries with the aim of turning the workers against Mr. Ganduje.
The source confided that “the top officials of the ministry who are staunch loyalists to the Kwankwasiyya ideology are behind the government sabotage to pay local government staffs."
Authoritative sources speaking to SaharaReporters disclosed that the money meant to bail out the LGAs, provided by the Kano State government, was diverted to another bank where the interest collected on that money was later taken by the ministry officials.
It will be recalled that Mr. Ganduje had disclosed that the State government released N1.2 billion from its internally generated revenue to the 44 local government councils in the State to augment their federal allocations so that they could pay their workers their salaries for the month of June.
Mr. Ganduje explained that the move became necessary as the declining monthly allocation to the councils from the federation account was no longer sufficient to pay salaries, let alone address other development issues.
One source with knowledge of this issue said, “We ruled out celebrating the Sallah without salaries because some government officials are sabotaging the Ganduje administration. They just want to create hatred between the local government workers and the State governor."
“I am highly disappointed with those behind this sabotage who are heartless, because they caused serious tension among the families ahead of this Sallah celebration,” the source added.
Efforts to contact the State Commissioner of Local Government, Murtala Sule Garo, and the Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) for Kano State, Abdullahi Mohammed, proved abortive.
