Angry Taraba State government’s workers on Thursday shut down the state secretariat in Jalingo as they protested against the non-payment of their salaries.

The workers, under the aegis of the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council, JPSNC, accused the state government of not being sensitive to the plight of the citizens.

Peter Gambo, the State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, said that there were many irregularities in the payment of salaries of workers and pensions of retirees in the state.

According to him, local government workers and teachers are being owed eight months’ salary arrears which have caused them untold hardship.

Gambo also cited illegal deductions from salaries and subjection of workers to endless screenings and verification exercises as part of the reasons for the protest.

He also alleged that the union dues were deducted indiscriminately and was never remitted to the accounts of the unions and the state government has refused explain why.

The state NLC chairman said: “Government has shown that the welfare of workers in the state is not its priority.

“Workers have been subjected to all kinds of belittling treatments in the name of screening and verification that have not yielded any fruits apart from subjecting them to extreme hardships.

“The consultant has proven to be very incompetent in handling payment of salaries while the bank handling payment has clearly shown that it is confused. All these must stop now”, he said.

Addressing the protesters, the Taraba State Head of Service, Samuel Angyu, told them that government was aware of the workers’ complaints and was already taking steps to address them.

Angyu appealed to the workers to end the protest and make way for “peaceful and civilized discussions on the way forward.”

The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports that footballers of the state-owned football clud had on Monday, staged a protest at the Government House to demand the payment of their 21 months’ salary.