(Lokoja)
The Nigeria Union of Mines Workers , Ajaokuta steel branch, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to prevail on the Federal Ministry of Finance to pay the backlog of outstanding arrears of allowances due to the workers of the steel company.
This the union said was necessary with a view to enabling them cushion the effect of lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandermic in the country.
The Chairman of the union, Comrade Salami Mohammed Jimoh,who made the appeal during a news conference in Lokoja on Sunday.
He lamented that the ministry of finance had carried out verification for payment for long and approval given since December 2010,but that no payment had been made till date.
According to him, the workers of the steel company have been passing through untold hardship as a result of non payment of the allowances occassioned by the ‘Stay at Home Order’ of the government.
He said:“We are using this medium to appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to come to our aid by prevailing on the authority concerned to effect the payment of the allowance without further delay.
“This is necessary so that our members can take care of their families and attend to other financial needs.
“We don’t know what is hindering the payment because approval has been given since 2019, but the ministry of finance maintain silence over the approval,” the union chairman lamented.
While commending the Federal Government for taking proactive measures to contain the spread of coronavirus pandermic in the country, the union leader noted that payment of such allowances would serve as palliative to the workers concerned.
He, however, urged the members of the union to adhere strictly to the directives of health experts by observing social distancing, washing of hands regularly, use of sanitlizer and staying at home, to contain the spread of the pandemic disease.
Duaglobalnews recalls that Nigeria, as April 25, had over 1,000 cases of the Coronavrus out of more than 2.5 million cases and thousands of casualties, globally.
Though all the states sharing borders with kogi state have had cases of the dreaded disease since it broke out in Wuhan, China toward the end of 2019, the state has not registered any Coronavrus case.
