Kwara councillors take to streets over unpaid allowance

AGITATION for payment of severance and furniture allowance by the 193 councillors in Kwara state took a new twist on Wednesday, as they took to the streets, marched to the state House of Assembly to register their displeasure over the matter.

The Councillors, who met with Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed in Ilorin last week over non-payment of their allowances, rejected alleged reduction of their allowance from 300 per cent of their basic salary to 50 per cent of same.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune in Ilorin on Wednesday, chairman of the forum, Hon. Opeyemi Adeojo, who said their tenure would expire on November 10, 2016, added that each councillor was entitled to about N1.2 million of severance allowance.

“We earlier said the issue at hand is a family matter and that our governor is a listening governor. We met with the governor and we discovered that some people in some quarters had met with governor trying to mislead him. The governor claimed that there’s no severance allowance for the elected council members. And that our furniture allowance is 50 per cent of our basic salary as against the fact that it is 300 per cent of our basic salary as confirmed from RMAFC. That’s what we dispute against.