The civil servants in Ekiti state have blamed the embarrassing withdrawal of their salaries from their prospective banks accounts shortly after payment on the governor.
Ayodele Fayose
It was a disappointing weekend for workers in Ekiti State as the state government on Thursday withdrew two months’ salaries already paid into their bank accounts.
This was as teachers in the state declared a two-day warning strike over the refusal of Governor Ayodele Fayose to pay their September 2014 salary arrears and 2014 leave bonuses.
The state chairman of the Nigerian Union of Teachers, Samuel Akosile, told a Punch correspondent that the union would consider the next step to take at the expiration of the warning strike beginning today (Monday).
Workers, mainly civil servants in the state had last week received alerts from their banks that their salaries for November and December 2015 had been paid into their accounts. The workers were, however, in for a shock as the salaries were quietly withdrawn from their accounts without reasons from the banks.
Expressing his frustration to a correspondent, a civil servant who simply identified himself as Akindele, said, “I had gone to the bank on Friday to withdraw money from the Automated Teller Machine but was disappointed when there was no money in my account. On enquiry, I was told that the government had instructed banks to recall payment.”
But the government has blamed the error on the service providers.
Speaking with a reporter on Sunday, the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Lanre Ogunsuyi, said the government had no intention to embarrass any worker, adding that the issue was being looked into.
“The error is from the service provider and it has been rectified,” he said.
But many workers had gone to the bank to withdraw the money before the government could start removing the money from their accounts.