By Tina Chinyere – Portharcourt
Aggrieved workers of the Emohua Local Government Council have staged a protest at the Rivers State Local Government Service Commission over the alleged non-payment of their August and September salaries by the council chairman, Dr. Chidi Lloyd.
According to our correspondent, the protesters blocked the entrance of the Commission’s office at the State Secretariat complex, carried placards with inscriptions such as “Chidi Lloyd, Pay Us Our Salaries, No Payment, No Peace, Commission Chairman Israel Amadi Has Failed Us, and We Are Not Ghost Workers,” among others.
Addressing newsmen, one of the protest leaders, Solomon Erim, said the demonstration followed the alleged disobedience of Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s directive that all workers be paid before any verification exercise.
Erim accused the council chairman of selectively paying some workers while excluding others, contrary to the governor’s instruction. He stated that the protesters wanted the Commission to clarify whether they were duly employed, insisting that they would not relent until their salaries were paid.
He lamented that the prolonged non-payment had plunged many of the affected workers into financial hardship.
On their part, the Vice Chairman of NULGE, Emohua branch, Chioma Victor-Solomon, alongside Ovundah Ohakwe and Sophia Wokoma, decried the council chairman’s alleged disregard for the governor’s order.
They urged the Local Government Service Commission to escalate their grievances to the governor if it could not resolve the matter internally, stressing that the council chairman had no legal authority to dismiss workers he did not employ.
The protesting workers also called for a declaration of a state of emergency in Emohua Local Government Council to restore order and fairness.
Meanwhile, some commissioners from the Service Commission addressed the protesters, but the aggrieved workers vowed to march to Government House, Port Harcourt, to directly express their grievances to the governor.
