Protesting Street Sweepers In Calabar Complain OF Unpaid Salaries, Litter Governor’s Office With Garbage
Street sweepers (women) in Calabar Municipality and Calabar South Local Government, Cross River State on Tuesday staged a street protest, and barricaded Governor’s office over four months of unpaid stipends in Calabar.
The angry women in their fifties and sixties numbering over One hundred littered the front of the governor’s office with debris to show their displeasure over unpaid salary.
The protesters poured debris from waste bins and other garbage from the first gate, which is the main entrance used only by the governor to the second gate, used by others persons.
Security personnel including policemen, Department Security Services, DSS, were seen trying to stop passers-by and journalists from taking pictures and making videos as they were forced to delete the pictures from their devices.
One of the women, a 60-year-old Madam Nkoyo Effiong, lamented that they have been abandoned to die of hunger for the past four months despite sweeping the streets on daily basis.
“We are here to let the governor know that we have not been paid for four months. In 2015, they refused to pay us for six months and now they want to go away with our four months’ salaries.”
According to her, some of them were being paid N5,000 monthly while some were paid N10,000 monthly.
“Those of us who are sweepers are paid differently, some are paid N5,000, N8,000 and some are paid N10,000 monthly. There are those we call Wreckers and they collect N15,000 monthly. We just want them to give us our money before they leave office,” she said.
Another elderly woman in her fifties, with the name, Afia, who was in tears, lamented that they come out as early as 4:30 am, taking risks yet, they are not appreciated.
She said some were knocked down by moving vehicles and lost their lives, while some have been used for money rituals or raped, but they still take the risk just to feed their families.
“By 4.30 am, you must go to your duty post, and sweep your portion which is always a Long stretch before day breaks. They take risks to come out at that time. Some of our people were killed by moving vehicles, and some even used for rituals because that time is an ungodly hour but the government is not appreciating us.”
