Commercial activities were brought to a halt on Wednesday in Jalingo, the capital of Taraba State when aggrieved primary school pupils and their teachers staged a protest against non-payment of teachers’ salaries.
The protesters blocked major streets and the gate of Taraba State Government House for hours.
The protesting pupils, who displayed placards with various inscriptions, gave the government 24 hours to pay their teachers or they would shut the government house.
For hours, major roads, including Hamarua road, the main road that leads into the town and Donga Road Round About were held to a standstill by the enraged protesters who were chanting solidarity songs.
Leading the protest, one Bello Mustapha, said the pupils were demanding that the primary school teachers in the state be paid immediately.
Mustapha who spoke to journalists, lamented that primary school teachers in the state were not paid for between seven and 10 months.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Union of Teachers, NUT, Taraba State chapter, has condemned the protest, describing it as unfair.
The union urged the pupils and the teachers to give government time to sort out the abnormalities in the omission of the affected teachers’ names on the state government payroll during the biometric exercise.
Deputy Chairman, NUT Taraba State, Chapter Garuba Yusuf, called on the government to hasten up actions to clear the arrears of the primary school teachers to ensure industrial peace in primary schools in the state.
Speaking, Commissioner for Education, Johana Njingem, claimed the protest was championed by the opposition party.
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