Kogi State Poly workers stage protests against unpaid salaries

The academic staff and non-academic staff of Kogi State Polytechnic staged a peaceful protest at the gate of the institution over the non-payment of their salaries by the Kogi State Government.

The aggrieved unions faulted the recently concluded screening exercise saying it does not represent the true position of their status.They urged Governor Bello to pay eight months salaries being owed them insisting that they are not ghost workers.

The workers with placards bearing inscriptions such as ‘our colleagues on overseas training have wives and children like you, pay them their eight months salaries’, ‘public service is not your private enterprise’, ‘pay your workers their eight months salaries’, and ‘tertiary institution cannot do without contract salaries’.

They accused Governor Bello for not transparent enough insisting they are not ghost workers as portrayed by the recently concluded screening exercise.The protesters, who said they are genuine workers employed in accordance with the civil service rule, insisted that, “the nonpayment of salaries has caused more pains in our lives as we barely feed one square meal a day, while our counterparts in other institutions, both home and abroad enjoy huge benefits from their principals”.

They urged Bello to pay all their outstanding salaries for the interest of peace in the institution, maintaining that, they will continue the protest until their demands are met.

It will be recalled that the State Government had promised to pay all backlogs of salary by December 20th, which did not happened as many workers were not paid.The workers verification exercise, which started since March 2016 seems to have become an endless exercise, as many workers perceive it to be a ruse.