Taraba Govt Denies State Is Broke And Cannot Pay Bills

The Taraba State Government has denied allegations made by Dr David Jedua, the Chairman of Sardauna Local Government of the state, on facebook, that the state is broke and cannot pay its bills. Mr Ate Saleh, the Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, who was speaking at a news conference in Jalingo, the state capital on Monday, said the allegations were not true.

According to him, it is also not true that the state government cannot pay the salaries of its workers or pay for ongoing projects in the state.

The commissioner stressed that even when the state had yet to receive its monthly allocation from the Federal Government, it made history by paying workers’ salaries in that particular month.

“…the state had since May 2013, implemented the N18, 000 minimum wage for all the staff of the 16 local government areas of the state. In September last year, the state made history when it paid salaries without waiting for Federal Allocation”, Saleh said.

The commissioner explained that the N12 billion Jalingo-Garba -chede road project constructed by PW Nigeria Ltd had been completed and put to use while that of Bali-Gashaka -Gembu which was awarded at the cost of N17billion is currently ongoing.

“If they were not paid their earlier contract sum I doubt if they could agree to sign an agreement to undertake the new road to Gembu”, he added.

The commissioner urged people of the state to desist from rumour mongering and dissemination of unfounded information that is capable of causing confusion in the state.

Meanwhile, Jedua has denied ever making such allegations when he was contacted yesterday and challenged anyone with proof to the contrary to step forward with it.