Workers in the services of Cross River State Government have protested the non-payment of over three years and eight months salaries.
The aggrieved protesters, who staged a peaceful protest at the front of Government House in Calabar, carried placards with various inscriptions that read, “2018 CRS employed workers yet to be paid salaries, “Our dear Governor, let the wind of change make us smile, pay us salaries, “3 years without salaries, who did we offend?”
Speaking on behalf of the protesters, a man who gave his name as David said they were duly employed by the state government in 2018.
“And we were all given employment letters but no payment whatsoever has been given since then.
“We have been dialoguing with the Cross River State government for months now to no avail. Each time we go there, they asked us to come back that they are looking into it.
“And as it stands, we want the world to know that we are suffering. We have lost two of our colleagues to death due to hunger and starvation.
“The way things are going now, if something is not done by 2023, the civil service will be empty, call it December, 2023.
“We are the ones to take over, we have worked and understudied the civil service,” he lamented.
At the time of filing this report, no government official came to address the aggrieved protesters as they waited.
When newsmen contacted the special Adviser on Payroll Matters, who doubles as the state Auditor General, Mr. John Odey, claimed such an issue had not been brought to his table.
In his world, “Those are civil service matters; the Auditor General is not involved in service matters.”
But when asked if he is no more the Special Adviser to the Governor on Payroll, Odey said, “Until those things are brought to my table, I will not know anything about them. They have not been brought to my table.

By: Friday Nwagbara, Calabar