City sweepers of Calabar, the Cross River State capital, on Tuesday littered front of the governor's office with garbage in protest of their four months unpaid salary by the state government.
The women who protested in front of the governor's office , said the last time they were paid their monthly stipends was in December of 2022.
Their protest attracted the attention of passers by, which also led to obstruction of vehicular movement around the seat of power located along Leopard Road, Calabar.
According to some of the sweepers, they said have made efforts to speak with their employer, but their pleas seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
It was observed that they poured debris from wasted bin and other garbage from the first gate which is the main entrance used only by the governor to the second gate used by others persons.
Security personnel including police men, state security service , were seen trying to stop passers by and journalist from taking pictures and making videos as they were "apprehending" onlookers and deleting the pictures from their devices.
One of the affected sweeper's , Mrs Iquo Asuquo, said they have been unpaid since December 2022, and this month of April will make it four months.
"The salary they pay me is just 10,000 naira , some of my colleagues collect even less , yet they have been unable to pay us .
"We decided to express our displeasure today by littering front of the governor's office with refuse, because all the appeal to our employer seems to be irrelevant and this government is leaving in a less than 35 days.
"They should just pay us, some of us are widows and have kids to take care of , we use the monthly stipends to buy vegetable , resell , while some sell "table market " at Marian and Watt market ,we are barely surviving," she said.
Another affected sweeper, Mrs Deborah Essien told Vanguard that they wanted to get the governor's attention incase their handlers were not telling him the truth about their pathetic and unfortunate situation.
"We are suffering , many are dying, you can imagine, living on 8,500 as a widow with five children, we are appealing to Prof Ben Ayade to help us , we dint mean to be irrational , but we want our plight to be taken serious , because if nothing is done , we will come back again , she said.
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