Street sweepers in the employ of the Edo State Management Board last Thursday again took to the streets to protest the non-payment of their eight months’ salaries.
The protesters, who abandoned their official duty, marched through the ever-busy Kings Square to Edo State Government House, telling their sad stories.
The street sweepers had on November 3,2017 taken to the streets to protest the non-payment of seven months’ salaries.
Philip Shaibu, the state deputy governor, who received the protesters on behalf of Godwin Obaseki, the state governor, had assured them that all issues leading to the delay in the payment of their salaries were currently being resolved.
Shaibu added that the Secretary to the State Government, Osarodion Ogie was at the meeting with all the contractors under the waste management agency to resolve the issues.
He explained that the government was planning a better Public Private Partnership to keep the state clean, adding that the partnership would impact positively on their welfare.
Speaking to journalists, the spokesperson of the sweepers, Aigbe Jerry, who appealed to the state government to settle theor salary arrears, alleged that they have been stopped for work and that the job has been given to SEEFOR.
“On November 3, 2017, we protested against the non-payment of our salary to the state government and they promised us that within a week they would pay us. The deputy governor, Philip Shaibu who spoke to us during the protest promised us that we will be paid second week of the month of November. We all joyfully and happily went home.
“Since then we have been going to Government House and waiting for the money. We were at the Government House again and we were told to wait till November ending. Now November has come and gone. No payment but on December 1st we went to our office and didn’t see our manager.
“When we called him on phone, he asked us to wait that the money is coming and that the salary vouchers have been signed and that the money has not gotten to them. Since then we have been waiting for the money. But few days later, the manager told us to stop work till when the money is available to pay us. He promised us Tuesday, this week for the payment but now Tuesday has passed no payment and today is Thursday.
“They told us that the work has been taken from us, and it has been given to SEEFOR. We dig road and packed. We borrowed money to do the road work. They should pay us our money,” he said.
He lamented that some of the female workers who put to bed are still at the hospital because they were not able to pay hospital bills, while landlords have threatened to evict some of them for not being able to pay house rents.
While urging the government to be sensitive to the plights of workers in the state, he noted that government was supposed to be for the welfare of the people and not for its personal aggrandisement.
According to him, “this is not good at all. It is not encouraging to us as a government. A governor is supposed to be for the people and not for his pocket. Now we don’t know where we are going to.
“The governor should answer us. As a governor he had never come out to address us as workers he employed to know their needs and challenges which is very bad. We want to know where we are and at the same time we need our eight months’ salary.”
“We are on the streets again to protest to the state governor to tell him that we are not slaves or prisoners, that we are all human beings like him. He should pay us our money because every one of us has problems to solve with money; that is why we applied for the job”, he added.
Helen Jamiu and Christian Okhoroye, also members of the association, said government was not paying them the correct monthly salary, pointing out that in the employment letters they were offered N25,000 monthly but instead they were being paid N7,500 monthly.
Okhoroye said her husband was last Wednesday arrested by the landlord over non-payment of house rent.
IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, BENIN
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