The affected personnel told SaharaReporters that they were trained at the NDLEA Academy between July and December 2023 when they graduated.
Some newly employed personnel of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have decried the non-payment of their five months’ salary arrears after their passing out.
The affected personnel told SaharaReporters that they were trained at the NDLEA Academy between July and December 2023 when they graduated.
Some of the affected personnel told SaharaReporters that they were concerned about the agency's failure to pay their salaries for the period covering their five months of training.
Highlighting their frustrations over the delay in the payment of the salary arrears, since completing their training last year, they appealed to the Nigerian Government to do the needful.
According to them, the payment will assist them greatly in navigating the current economic challenges facing the country.
The personnel said they were dismayed that the arrears which should have been paid together with January and February salaries, had not been paid and the management was not showing interest.
"To our dismay, one of the Assistant Directors (Finance) purportedly asserted that there is no budgetary allocation for the owed payment," said one of the affected staff members.
The affected officers argued that their appointment letters and the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) indicate their first date of appointment as July 27, 2023, entitling them to their salaries from that date onwards.
Meanwhile, the new staff members lamented that the absence of official communication from the agency had exacerbated their frustration, especially given the lack of transparency surrounding the issue.
They cited the agency's failure to adhere to the code of conduct provided to them, which promised that their salaries would be paid in bulk to facilitate their settling down in their new place of posting.
They further expressed disbelief at the assistant director's claim that the Federal Government did not budget for the owed funds. They argued that such statements were misleading and served as an attempt to withhold their hard-earned wages.
The personnel who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation asserted that they were rightfully entitled to the five-month salary arrears owed to them.
"The discrepancy between the agency's promises in the code of conduct and conditions of service and its actions is highly unfortunate.
"We, therefore, call for accountability and transparency from the agency in addressing this issue and ensuring that we are paid all the entitlements due to us starting from July 27, 2023, when we were engaged," one of them said.
When SaharaReporters contacted the NDLEA's Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, for the agency’s reaction, he denied the claims.
He said that the agency did not owe any staff members salary.
He said, "We do not even pay salary, salary is paid by the federal government. The agency does not have any staff that resumed work in July 2023. Go and check, whoever is telling you that ask them to give you their letter of appointment; it will state when they were employed.
"The people you are talking about were employed in January and that is what their letter of employment said and that is when they resumed. Ask them the letter of their employment and when they resumed work?"