Members of the Trade Union Congress ,TUC, staged a protest yesterday at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja, where they decried alleged poor workers welfare, unpaid allowance arrears, and withheld emoluments.
The demonstrators, led by aggrieved staff of the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority ,NNRA, under the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria ,PENGASSAN, accused the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, of ignoring multiple appeals regarding their statutory entitlements.
They were dressed in red t-shirts and holding placards with different inscriptions which include, “Stop the anti Laborite”, amongst others.
The protesters locked the gates of the ministry, which halted the flow of vehicular traffic in and out of the premises.
Civil servants who arrived for duty were forced to return home as access to the building was cut off.
Addressing journalists at the protest, the Industrial Relations Officer of NNRA, Patrick Solomon, said the ministry had remained “insensitive” to the workers’ plight despite numerous attempts at resolution.
“We are here to protest the insensitivity to our requests and demands as a union and as members. We had certain challenges, and we have used all avenues to resolve the issues, but there were no listening ears. Our internally generated revenue ,IGR, has been withheld for nothing less than 15 months. It has been very difficult to operate in the office”, Solomon said.
He added that the situation was compounded by the non-payment of allowances, a matter the union had repeatedly raised with the finance minister.
“We have been on this issue with the minister for a very long time now, and it’s obvious he is not ready to listen to us”, he stated.
The workers vowed to sustain the protest until their demands are met, and called on the federal government to intervene and ensure the release of their withheld funds and entitlements.
As of press time, officials from the Ministry of Finance had yet to make any official comment on the protest.
