By Joseph ETTA in Calabar
Some teachers who were dismissed, following a staff audit, yesterday staged a protest in front of the governor’s office in Calabar, Cross River State capital, disrupting movement.
Many science teachers marched to demand their reinstatement and payment of their September and October salaries.
Daybreak had carter scooped the story, the state government, two months ago, dropped about 2000 employees from its payroll, following a staff audit.
Most of those affected were science teachers employed by former Governor Liyel Imoke towards the end of his administration.
The teachers bore placards with various inscriptions, some of which read “Reinstate our names into payroll”; “We deserve better treatment as nation builders”; “Ayade: don’t take away our food”.
They were later joined by other protesting judiciary staff and those of other ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) affected by the non-payment of salaries.
A teacher in Government Girls Secondary School, Big qua Town, Calabar, Mr Henry Abu told Daybreak, about 500 of us were delisted from the payroll in September, resulting in hardship to their families.
He said: “We are out on this protest today because, from our investigations, we found out that our names were removed from the payroll without due process.”
“It’s been two months now and we have not been paid. We have families to feed and we have to pay our children’s and wards’ school fees.
“The Governor promised us food on the table, but as it stands now, we can’t even feed on the crumbs. The governor has betrayed our confidence in him.
“We are here to ask him to reinstate us and pay us our two months’ salary arrears. Five hundred Science Teachers in the State are affected by this sack.”
A teacher with the secondary education board, Mr Itam Obono, said an Indian firm “educom”, handled their recruitment in 2015.
Obono said Imoke spent a lot of money in the recruitment process to ensure transparency and quality of those recruited.
His words: “How can an interview that was done transparently by an Indian firm be faulted four years after? The governor has refused to tell us exactly why he has refused to pay us.”
“What we are facing are fraud and conspiracy. The Special Assistant on Payroll to the Governor, Mr john Odey, is not competent and we demand his immediate sack.
“The special adviser claimed that they were fishing out ghost workers from the payroll. If you are fishing for ghost workers, does it amount to stopping salaries of 500 teachers?
“We demand the immediate payment of our salaries before the end of today. This money is not Ayade’s money; it is money meant for salaries of civil servants and so, we deserve to be paid.”
A judiciary staff member, Essien Etim, said they were employed in 2015, and that they have their confirmation letters.
He said: “Our names were on the payroll before they were removed three months ago. We were employed under civil service rules.
“We want our entitlements, our two months salaries for September and October to be paid. No reason was given for the disengagement. Now, there is a secret reinstatement going on in the state.
“The water board has been doing reinstatement; those who were sacked in 2018 have been reinstated, but those of us employed in 2015 have not.”
“We went to the House of Assembly and the speaker spoke to us. He said he will speak with the governor.”
While the protest lasted, no government official came to addressed them. Ayade was said to have traveled for an official engagement.
But, Mr Christian It’s, Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Governor Ben Ayade, told Daybreak that the governor was doing a cleansing of the state payroll to delete ghost workers.
He said: “Nobody has sacked them. The government realized that because approval was given for employment in some areas, the people in charge resorted to over-employment.
“In some cases, where 200 persons were approved for employment, the people saddled with the responsibility recruited 700 staff. So, nobody has been sacked.
“Those whose employment were genuine have been given letters for re-validation of their employment. This means that those that were genuinely employed are to be restored to the payroll.”
