LG Election: Disquiet As LG Workers Move Against APC In Nasarawa State 

BY AHMED TUKUR, LAFIA – There is palpable tension and apprehension hovering and enveloping the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Nasarawa state following threat by some staff of the third tier of government to vote out the ruling party during the forthcoming local government election scheduled for February 2021.

The threat by the Local Government workers is coming on the heels of the verification exercise during which most of the workers’ names were omitted on the payment voucher for October and November salaries.

Local Government workers and other civil servants constitute over 70 percent of the voting population in Nasarawa state.

Most of them are of the view that the APC has failed to address their plight and would choose to vote in a different party that will give them a sense of belonging.

One of the affected workers said; “We will use our vote to determine our fate because the present system is planning to send us to our graves. Some of us have not been paid for three months because of the verification exercise that has refused to yield result,” one of the staff who does not want his name in print said.

 The matter for the local government workers became worse last week when some of the workers who were expecting their November salaries woke up to find their names on the notice board as retired workers.

Already, most of them have written complaints to the state Local Government Service Commission to protest their forced retirement.

Although the state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Yusuf Turaki promised that those with genuine complains will be addressed, the workers are of the view that the state government has lost focus on the right direction.

Commenting on the development, the state Secretary of the APC, Mr. Aliyu Bello, said that the party is not worried by the threat and that the verification exercise is to bring sanity to the system, stressing that a serious government does not think about election but concentrate on doing the right thing.

He also said that the exercise will not affect the chances of the party at the local government polls adding that; “any serious government that wants to carry out correction will not care about election. If really you want to effect correction, forget about election, you are doing it for the people that are going to take over from you”.

Bello however urged members of the APC to exercise patient as government will address their plight, adding that the governor will meet their yearnings and aspirations.

He also said that the government is not witch-hunting anybody with the verification exercise but desirous to correct the anomalies and ensure salaries are paid as at when due.