Olakunle Maruf Sokoto
The coalition of civil servants in the state has sent a save our soul appeal to the state government to pay up their outstanding salaries.
In response to the statement credited to the Sokoto State commissioner for information, Akibu Dalhatu, over the delayed payment of February salaries to some state workers.
While addressing a press conference at the Nigerian Union of Journalists press centre, Zuru road in Sokoto on Tuesday, the group leader, Ibrahim Adamu Musa, from Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, described the statement of the commissioner as false and misleading.
Musa reaffirmed that no fewer than 10,000 members of the state civil service cut across different ministries and departments were affected by the delay.
He said, “We want to inform the people of Sokoto State that the statement made by the Honourable Commissioner of Information that the state government is not owing civil servants any outstanding salary is false.
“It is because of that unrealistic statement of the commissioner that we gathered here to inform the people of Sokoto State that they should kindly put us in prayer for the government to, as a matter of urgency, pay us our entitlements.
“We heard lots of stories about our salary but for a whole serving commissioner to falsely misinformed the citizens on a serious and important life-saving issue like salary, we cannot condone.”
The affected civil servants, mostly senior civil servants, cut across many ministries in the state under the umbrella of the coalition of Sokoto State civil servants however appealed to the state governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, to urgently look into their plight and pay up their salaries for the month of February and March.
The group further called on the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, as well as other elders in the state to assist in their numerous ways to get the outstanding salary of the affected civil servants paid on time.
