The Benue government says it will pay civil servants another five months of salary arrears, adding that it has already been captured in the 2025 budget.

The state commissioner for finance, Michael Oglegba, said this in Makurdi on Wednesday.

Mr Oglegba explained that the state government in 2024 paid five months’ arrears out of the total owed to civil servants in Benue.

He, however, said that the payment was pending the availability of funds and that the arrears would be paid continuously until it was totally offset.

“When this present administration came into office, we met a backlog of 48 months for pensioners and civil servants.

“We came into office and discovered that pensioners for three years were not captured in government data. We went ahead to capture them and the amount of pension arrears grew from N400 million to N1 billion. 

“So the money we saved up from the civil servants revalidation exercise all went into the payment of pensions and from the exercise, we were able to drive down the amount being spent on salaries monthly,” Mr Oglegba explained.

The commissioner further clarified that salaries were paid in different categories.

Mr Oglegba added that the staff revalidation exercise was a continuous process, and the government was gearing up to start another one so as to fish out ghost workers in Benue.

(NAN)