- I am not on the ground, says DICON PRO
From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Protesting civilian staff of the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON), Kaduna on Monday clashed with soldiers who struggled to stop them from staging a peaceful protest.
Consequently, the soldiers beat up and arrested civilian staff of the Corporation who staged a peaceful protest against non-payment of their allowances, running into some months.
However, when contacted, the DICON Public Relations Officer, Musa Yakubu, responded via a text message, by simply saying, “Sorry sir, I’m not on the ground, thank you.”
The Monday protest by the civilian staff of DICON is the second of a similar attempt to press home their demand for payment of their six months of Peculiar Allowance, Minimum wage arrears since 2019, and Promotion arrears for 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Meanwhile, as they assembled for the protest around 8:00 am at the Kakuri factory of the Corporation on Monday, the soldiers who were drafted by the Management to prevent protest within the facility, pushed the protesting staff away from the gate, to the nearby weekly Monday Market.
In the process, the soldiers who were armed to the teeth, beat up one of the protesters, who was using his mobile phone to record the scene, while another protesting staff, identified as Bala, a civilian security man in the factory was also arrested and taken into custody by the armed soldiers.
Speaking to Reporters, the staff who also highlighted the lack of enrollment into the IPPIS scheme, said they were suffering in their service to Nigeria through DICON.
They demanded immediate payment of their full promotion arrears for 2020, 2021, and 2022, and their Peculiar Allowance to cushion the removal of fuel subsidy, among other demands.
According to the protesting staff, “We are only here to let the management and the federal government know how we are being treated as civilian staff of DICON.
“This is because we discovered that all agencies under the Ministry of Defence have been enrolled into IPPIS, only DICON staff have not been captured. But you can see how our member was beaten and another taken into custody by soldiers.”
They called on the Federal Government to intervene by directing the management of DICON to respond to their demands and to stop victimising staff who voiced their concerns regarding the mistreatment and denial of their rights.