Workers in governor’s office on sit-at-home strike over outage

Civil servants in Cross River State Government House have quietly gone on a sit-at-home protest against continued blackout at the state secretariat.It has been observed as a tradition that whenever the governor is out of the state, there is always persistent power outage. For the past two weeks since the governor left the state, electricity has not been constant, a situation that has forced both civil servants and political appointees to abandon their duty posts.

A civil servant, who preferred anonymity said, “although we belong to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), we have decided to remain at home because every time the governor travels, there will be no light in the office.

“Even when the deputy governor is in the office, if the Chief of Staff, who does not come to the office once the governor is not around, does not give an order for the generating set to be put on, we will not have light in the office.

“As I am talking to you now, important letters that should be produced are still lying idle because there is no light to do so. How do you go to the office and all you do is idle about because apart from the office being hot, which makes it uncomfortable to work, machines are not working because of lack of power.”

A senior staff in the governor’s office, who simply gave his name as Agbor, said: “You can see how the governor’s office has been turned into a ghost environment because the governor is not in town. This was not the case when Donald Duke and Imoke were in power.”

A Special Adviser who also pleaded for anonymity said: “Since the governor is not in town, what are we going to do there? Yes, we are his appointees and once he is not in the state, nothing goes well and we cannot stay in the office without light. That is for those us who are fortunate to have offices, because a greater majority of appointees don’t have offices.

“So, if you were one of those appointees who do not have offices but only come to the governor’s office to hang around just for him to see you, what will you be doing there when he is not around?” he asked.When contacted on phone to react on the development, the chief of staff to the governor, Mr. Martins Orim, could not be reached on his cell phone, as his calls were not answered or returned.