Over 2,500 delisted Cross River civil servants protest »

Over 2,500 civil servants who were delisted from the payroll of the Cross River State government 13 month ago protested yesterday in Calabar, the state capital.

They barricaded the state secretariat on Murtala Mohammed highway in the capital town as they called for their reinstatement.

A leader of the protesters, Francis Inah, said many of the affected civil servants had not received salaries since 2018 while others had not been paid since August 2019.

He said: “We were duly employed in 2015 and due process was followed as many of us wrote different examinations and were given employment letters by the Cross River State government. But surprisingly, for no reason, many of our names were dropped from the payroll in 2018 and another large number in August 2019.

“The government claimed that many of us entered through the back door. We have been made to go for various audits; yet, our names have not been reinstated till date. What crime have we committed?

“We are appealing to Governor Ben Ayade-led administration to take a good look into our plight because many of us are now homeless and our children are out of school, coupled with the impact of COVID-19. Life is getting worse by the day.”

The protesters carried placards with various inscriptions, such as: “Ayade, pay us our salaries”; “No Trade Union in Cross River”; “We will protest until we are reinstated” and “John Odey should be sacked.”

They decried the removal of their names from the government payroll.

Francis said Labour had failed to take up their case.

He said: “Labour has abandoned us. The Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) have abandoned us because it does not affect them directly. We can no longer keep quiet. We are dying by the day out of frustration and depression. What we are passing through is terrible. Many of us have been receiving salaries for about three years before our names were illegally removed and things turned from bad to worse for us and our families.”

The state’s TUC Chairman Monday Ogbodum said they met with the Head of Service on the matter and that there will be a screening this week to resolve the anomaly.

“We are not keeping quiet about their plight, we are doing our best to resolve the matter, there are plans to carry out screening to know those genuine persons whose names were removed from the payroll this week,” he said.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Mr. Christian Ita, argued that the protest was unnecessary as Labour and government had concluded plans to carry out a screening to ascertain the civil servants who were erroneously removed from the payroll.

©TheNation