Two Separate Labour Protest hit Port Harcourt: Rivers NLC in Solidarity Protest

*Some Teachers in angry Protest of 5 years of unpaid  by Rivers Government.

BY ERIC OLUSESAN

Nigeria Labour Congress,NLC, Rivers State Chapter, led by Comrade Beatrice Ituboh, joined their counterparts across the country in a peaceful protest in Port Harcourt today.

The protest is sequel to the plans by the National Assembly to move workers’ salaries from the exclusive to Concurrent list to enable State Governments negotiate what they can pay.

In her speech,  Mrs Ituboh clarified the workers in Rivers State do not have about the payment of minimum wage, but that the peaceful protest was in obedience to the directives of the national leadership of NLC.

Ituboh led the Protesters to the Rivers State the Rivers State House of Assembly where they addressed the lawmakers.

Nigeria Labour Congress,NLC, Rivers State Chapter led by Comrade Beatrice Ituboh, led top leaders and affiliate union members of a peaceful protest in Port Harcourt.

Meanwhile,our Correspondent reports that in separate protest in Port Harcourt, Teachers of Primary and Secondary Schools attached to Tertiary institutions owned by the Rivers State Government, popularly known as ‘Demostration Schools’ protested to Government House Port Harcourt over five years of unpaid salaries.

Aggrieved Teachers of carried banners of with photos of 10 of their colleagues who died within the Five years of unpaid
salaries.

 Some other inscriptions carried by aggrieved Teachers were; “Five years No Salaries”,”Pay our Parents”,”Wike we are more than Flyovers”,etc.

At the time of filing this report, the Teachers who were earlier at the Rivers State House of Assembly Complex protesting for five years of unpaid salaries, also took their protest to Government House in a bid to lay bare their grievances to the Governor Nyesom Wike or any top Government officials to address them.

It was not clear if  Governor Wike had audience with them.

At the House of Assembly they called on the lawmakers to prevail on Governor Wike and the state government obey Court Orders and pay their salaries as their families have been subjected to hardship and scavenging to survive. They said many of their members are dying and many are hungry and sick and need urgent medical attention.

The aggrieved Teachers lament the untold hardships they have been going through without salary for the past five years.

It would be recalled that over 250 Teachers who were employed at the Primary and Secondary Demostration Schools owned by three Rivers State Tertiary Institutions have been crying out to the state government to pay their five years unpaid salaries.

Teachers had won the state government at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria in June 2018, before the State government appealed the judgement, but Appeal was struck out for lack of merit.

Governor Nyesom Wike, allegedly refuses to pay the affected Teachers

The woes of the affected teachers started  of February 18, 2016, when Governor Nyesom Wike ordered their salaries be expunged from the payroll.

Wike had argued then that since the Schools charge parents School fees, the management of such schools should be responsible for the salaries and allowances of their Teachers and should not depends on the State Government for payment of salaries.

The affected  Teachers had earlier threatened that  if the Government fails to pay them within 14 days they will stage peaceful Protest and occupy Government House.

The directive of  Governor  Wike affected Teachers of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education Demonstration secondary school, Ndele; Rivers State University International Secondary and Staff School, Port Harcourt, and Ken-Saro Wiwa Polytechnic Comprehensive Secondary School, Bori. Their names were immediately expunged from the State Government Salary vouchers on orders of Governor Wike.
A total of 255 affected  teachers in a joint press briefing in Port Harcourt with the Rivers Civil Society Organization, called on the state government to urgently payup their salaries and obey Court orders as an administration that preaches obedience of the rule of law as they had won all litigations concerning the matter  from National Industrial Court and Appeal Court.

They lamented the challenges they have faced for the past five years without the payment of their salaries.

The Chairman of the Rivers Civil Society Organizations, Enefaa Georgewill, said the Organization is calling on the state government to pay up their five years salaries owe by the state government.

He threatened that the organization would join the affected teachers to protest if their salaries are not paid on or before the end of Febuary, 2021.

 102 out of the affected  Teachers at the former Rivers State University of Science and Technology, now Rivers State University,RSU, 97 at the IAUE and 55 were employees at Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic,KSWP.

They claimed that since Wike’s order in February 2016, their respective institutions had refused to pay their salaries which had resulted in unnecessary hardship for themselves and their families.