Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search
Breaking News:

Lagos pioneer council workers protest unpaid salaries 

By Adedamola Saka
26 July 2022   |   4:09 am
Lagos State pioneer council workers, yesterday, staged a protest over 16 years unpaid salaries and allowances.

The protesters PHOTO: Adedamola Saka

Lagos State pioneer council workers, yesterday, staged a protest over 16 years unpaid salaries and allowances.

The protesters, who were mainly former political office holders from various local councils, who served between 2004 and 2007, stormed the Lagos State Governor’s office, Alausa, Ikeja, asking for the payment of their salaries and allowances.

The 750-member protesters alleged that some of their colleagues have died waiting for the payment, while others are bed ridden with the government being insensitive to their plight.

Brandishing placards, the protesters said 76 of their members have died, while 100 are bed-ridden.

Although they were restricted to the gate, the protesters refused to leave until they met with the governor.

After several hours, security officers informed them that they would convey their message to the governor as he was out of town.

Lamenting  their ordeal, the coordinator of the group, Muhammed Ameen said they have written about 32 letters  to  the government without reply.

He lamented that the late former President Musa Yar’Ádua, on assumption of office, ordered the release of the seized council funds, which were released in tranches.

He said: “We are the pioneer elected and appointed members at the local council level at the creation of 37 Local Council Development Area (LCDA) out of the 20 Local Council in the state, comprising 57.

“We went into election and won, at the point of swearing in, the former president Olusegun Obasanjo stopped the allocation to Lagos State council.

“We took it as our responsibility and pain to be with our leader, our father and also our mentor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who was then the governor of Lagos State.

“We stood by him throughout the period without receiving any salary. We didn’t even know what our salary will look like, at the end of the day some money was released by the Federal Government through the intervention of people like Prince Bola Ajibola (SAN).

When Obasanjo and Tinubu left office, the remaining balance of the allocation was released by the  late Umar Musa Yar’adua, who was the president of Nigeria and Fashola was the governor of Lagos state.

“Instead of them giving us all our money, only God knows what happened. Almost at the point of leaving the government, Tinubu called us and told us that he had approved our salary for the period we have stayed, which was from October 2006 and our tenure was to end in March 2007.”

0 Comments