Contrary to claims by the Rivers State government that it was not owing civil servants in the state, civil servants and pensioners on Wednesday besieged the Rivers State Secretariat in Port Harcourt in protest of the non-payment of their salaries and pension arrears by the state government.
The protesters moved in droves to the secretariat at about 9am, singing war songs and causing traffic gridlock, while workers at the secretariat refused to attend to anybody.
A leader of the protesters, Tony Ochaigha, told newsmen that they were demonstrating because of the refusal of the state government to pay their salaries for two months, adding that it was the first time in the history of the state that workers would be owed two months salaries while the third month is fast approaching. He added that the state also owed pensioners 5 months arrears.
Ochaigha said: “We are talking to the Rivers State Government who is our employer. The civil service is the engine room and the platform on which every administration functions. So, why would they play on the impulse of the civil service?”
Also speaking to newsmen, the state secretary of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners in Rivers State, Mr. Joseph Agbo, disclosed that pensioners in the state had not been paid for five months, urging Governor Rotimi Ameachi to pay them before leaving office.
Agbo added that apart from the five months, there are other arrears such as the 14 per cent, 15 per cent and 38 per cent increases which had not being paid.
“Pension is a right and not a privilege. Before the governor came on board, salaries of civil servants and pensioners were regular, but all these are no more.
“We have, on six occasions, had demonstrations in the past over the anomalies and our members are dying without getting their entitlements,” he said.
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