By CrossRiverWatch Admin
Dozens of civil servants engaged in different Ministries, Departments, Agencies and parastatals of the Cross River State Government are currently protesting the non payment of salaries since they were engaged in 2017 and 2018.
The civil servants who are carrying placards and banners are currently demonstrating in front of the Governor’s office in Calabar while the Governor, Benedict Ayade attends a function at the Transcorp Metropolitan hotel, less than 100 meters away.
Some of the placards read; “let the wind of change make us smile, 2018 employed workers are suffering, 2018 workers were duly employed” among others.
It is not the first time they are protesting. They, alongside their colleagues numbering about 3,000 carried out a similar protest in 2020.
The protests in September 2020, where a lady slumped, led to Governor Ayade addressing them, denying knowledge of the demonstrations and directing a verification exercise which upon conclusion, only those who were employed in 2015 and 2016 and had been issued confirmation letters were added to the payroll. The Governor had told them to forfeit the backlog of salaries.
The remaining 1,800 engaged between 2017 and 2018 were not added, and their leader, David Nya said it was frustrating as they are currently assigned to different MDA’s and have been working without pay.
Two of their colleagues have died while the Head of Service in the State and several others whom they tried to reach refused to grant them audience. The kidnapping of the Nigerian Labour Congress Chairman in the State, Ben Ukpepi who has been missing for over 60 days also compounded the issue, he said.
Watch his interview on CrossRiverWatch TV below…
Below are scenes from the protest…
Leave feedback about this