TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
About 110 staffers of Ahoada-West Local Government council of Rivers State have protested non-payment of a year salary by the chairman, Hope Ikiriko.
The aggrieved workers during their peaceful demonstration yesterday, begged the state Governor, Nyesom Wike, and the House of Assembly to prevail on Ikiriko, to pay their 13 months salary arrears.
The protesters, who stormed the State Government House, Port Harcourt, and the House of Assembly Complex, alleged that the council chairman decided not to pay them their salaries because they are not from Ahoada-West.
They added that all the indigenes of the LGA receive their salaries regularly.
Speaking on behalf of the protesters, Nwisaenee Dornubari, dismissed the claims that the affected persons were ghost workers, noting that they were all duly employed and posted to the LGA by the government.
Dornubari said: “Before we came for this protest we have utilized all the internal mechanism that civil servants are meant to go through to resolve this matter, but it was futile.
“The Chairman of the LGA, Hon Hope Ikiriko, has refused to pay us for the past 13 months now. When he came, he said he wanted personnel audit and all of us went through four stages of the process. I don’t know the criteria he has used to deny us our salary. I don’t know the reason he is denying us our statutory right.
“We are not ghost workers we are not retirees as he is claiming. We are duly employed and serving. The highest person among us is 40 years. We are begging on the governor of the state, the Speaker, to use their good offices to prevail on Hope Ikiriko to pay us our salary”, he begged.
Also, Peace Joseph, a level eight staff of the council accused the chairman of the LGA of being selective and tribal, noting that he (Ikiriko) has refused to pay them because they were not from the LGA.
Joseph said: “For 13 months now, we have not been paid. Our salaries are withheld by the council Chairman, Hon. Hope Ikiriko. He said we should go back to our local government areas and work that we are not supposed to work in Ahoada West.
“We are crying for our right. We are suffering and going through untold hardship because of one man that refused to give us our right. He is selective.
“We were 350 staff that were affected. The people from that LGA went to him and he removed our name from the list and now, we are 110 people working in the LGA that are affected.
Meanwhile, Special Assistant to the Council Chairman on Media and Publicity, Madu Madueke, has told journalists that all the staff of the council have been paid and promptly.
He denied the allegation that some of the workers were owed by the council.
End.