By Patrick Obia
Calabar ad-hoc staff who sweeps the roads for the Calabar Urban Development Authority (CUDA) have yet again staged a peaceful protest over four (4) months of unpaid salaries, saying life has been difficult.
The women in their numbers stormed the Governor’s Office, Calabar, on Tuesday 25 April, chanting solidarity and emotional songs with leaves demanding their entitlements to be paid.
One of the sweepers could be heard saying she relies on the ten (10,000) thousand Naira monthly stipend to feed and send her five children to school since she lost her husband.
The women said for the past hours of protest, none either from the government has come to address them.
They further inferred that their Supervisor, Eno Edem who unusually pay them says there is no money and oftentimes has threatened to either sack or deal with them.
Speaking to CrossRiverWatch one of the oldest sweepers who wouldn’t want her name on print said the protest is now an exercise every week.
“Since January we have not been paid – four good months. The Commissioner for Environment is not saying anything, Eno Edem says there is no money.
“We have been going to protest at the Governor’s Office almost every week and we are tired. There was a time Eno met us there and asked us ‘who call una here’. We don’t know what they want us to do or die hungry. The funny thing is that nobody is telling us anything,”
Sweepers Tear-Gassed, The Genesis
About the late hours of Wednesday 20th October 2021, hundreds of ad-hoc staff who sweeps the roads for the Calabar Urban Development Authority (CUDA) staged a protest over unpaid six-month salaries and were tear-gassed by men of the Sting Unit of the Police force.
The women who were then paid only NGN 7,500 per month, said they had been owed for six months and tricked by the Commissioner for Environment, Mfon Bassey as well as their supervisor, Eno Edem.
The women, half of whom are aged, marched from the Efio- Ette round down to Murtala Mohammed highway.
At the Old Secretariat complex, Special Forces in not less than four trucks fire teargas to disperse the women as they were about to enter the Secretariat and en route to the Governor’s Office.
Most of them said they are widows with children who depend on the token given to them for survival, still sweep daily yet, having nothing to show.
A nursing mother was tear-gassed in the process along Big Qua junction.
The tear-gassing was condemned both nationally and internationally as well as associations including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) among others.
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