About 500 science teachers in Cross River State yesterday staged a protest to the State Governor’s office to demand reinstatement into service and payment of their September and October salaries.
The teachers, who carried various placards with such slogans as “reinstate our names into payroll”, “ we deserve better treatment as nation builders and “Ayade, don’t take away our food”, prevented movements in and out of the governor’s office.
Spokesperson of the group, Mr Henry Abu, a teacher in Government Girls Secondary School, Biq-qua Town, Calabar, told The Tide’s source that 500 of them were allegedly delisted from the state government’s payroll in September.
Abu said the removal of their names from the payroll had caused untold hardship to families of the affected teachers in the state.
“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 from 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 salaries arrears. 500 Science Teachers in the state are affected by this sack,” he said.
Also speaking, a teacher with Secondary Education Board, Mr Itam Obono, said that the recruitment that brought them to service was done by an Indian firm, “Educom” in 2015.
Obono said that the former Governor of Cross River State, Sen Liyel Imoke, spent a lot of money in the recruitment process to ensure transparency and quality of teachers in the service.
“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 is an issue of fraud and conspiracy. The Special Assistant on Payroll to the Governor, Mr John Odey, is not competent and we demand for 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,” he said.