Gov. Umaru Al-Makura of Nasarawa has ordered the postponement of cash payment of workers’ salaries to September.

The Special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Ahmed Tukur, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lafia that government’s decision followed a meeting with organised labour.

He said government took the position to shift the cash payment from August to September after considering the timing and the processes involved to have a hitch-free exercise.

The governor, he said, had directed the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, and the Accountant General to commence payment of August salaries immediately.

He also said that government and labour agreed that the process of documentation for cash payment would commence early with effect from September salary.

The meeting also agreed that the exercise would be done in collaboration with labour while all state and local government staff were advised to comply with the requirements for the exercise.

He added that organised labour had Mr Abdullahi Adeka, state Chairman, NLC, Danladi Namo, Chairman TUC, and Sule Usman, Chairman Joint Negotiating Council, in attendance.

NAN reports that the state government had last week announced that it would pay workers by cash with effect from August.

The state’s Head of Service, Dr Dominic Bako, said the exercise was part of government’s efforts to tackle the incidence of ghost workers.

He said the exercise would also help ascertain the veracity of the biometric exercise recently conducted by Skye Bank which served as the state government’s consultants.

“It is expected to complement the biometric data capture of civil servants in the state carried out by Skye Bank.

“The Head of Service stressed that the new payment method would ensure transparency and instil sanity in the system,’’ he said.