Kwara civil servants embark on protests over unpaid salaries

Hundreds of the combined members of staff of the three colleges of education in Oro, Ilorin and Lafiagi as well as College of Arabic and Islamic Studies, also in Ilorin, protested over non payment of their salaries for over 24 months by the outgoing administration of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed.

Coincidentally, sweepers in the employment of the state government also joined the array of protesters over alleged non payment of their salaries.

The protesters who went round the major streets of Ilorin later converged on the Government House gate.

But Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Communication, Dr Muyideen Akorede, said government’s inability to pay on time was due to the depression in the economy.

He said that Governor Ahmed had been trying to find ways of paying various sectors of workers before handing over to a new administration.

Their placards read, ‘Gov Ahmed, pay our salaries before you leave office,’ ‘We are suffering, many of us have died; enough is enough, ‘Remember you also have families, pay us our dues,’ ‘EFCC should intervene why we have not been paid..where is Kwara money?’

They barricaded the gates, preventing visitors from going in and out, raining curses on the governor and his aides over their untold sufferings as a result of non payments of their salaries and throwing stones at the gate.

Their spokesperson who is the state Chairman, Committee of Unions of Tertiary Institutions, Mr Imam Abubakar told journalists that they had not been paid for over 24 months, equivalent of two years.

Abubakar said, “We decided to come out and protest because we have run out of patience. Many of our colleagues have died and several others are suffering untold hardship as a result of the non payment of our salaries.

“Many have been embarrassed and sent out of their homes by their landlords and many families have been unjustly separated because of their predicaments.

“They told us that they used to pay us through the Internally Generated Revenue but that the money they are making is no longer enough to pay us.