The Kwara State Government says it is yet to receive the N5bn Federal Government bail out loan approved by the State House of Assembly for the payment of Local Government workers’ salary and pension arrears.

The State Government, in a statement made by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communications, Dr Muyideen Akorede, said although it has paid arrears owed to state workers with its bail out loan from the Federal Government, that of the local governments was yet to be released by the Federal Government.

The state government therefore called on primary school teachers and other local government workers as well as pensioners, to exercise patience as government is doing everything possible to accelerate the payment.

The statement further said that the government had complied with the all necessary conditions and paperwork for accessing the loan and expects the Federal Government to release the money shortly.

The Government explained that although August allocation had been released to the local government councils, the fund is insufficient to pay salaries of local government workers.

The state government, according to the statement, is therefore augmenting the allocation with N800m to enable the local government councils pay workers.

Giving an assurance that the N800m augmentation would be finalised by Thursday, the government said the workers’ August salary would be paid within the week, while government awaits the bail out fund from the Federal Government.

The state government therefore empathised with the affected local government workers and called for their understanding as all necessary machinery had been put in place to pay the existing arrears and prevent a reoccurrence.