11th May, 2015
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Aides to members of Rivers State House of Assembly, RSHA, in the early hours of this morning staged a protest over the non-payment of their four months salaries and allowances.
The protesters carried placards with inscriptions like: “We served you well, pay us our salaries”; “We are human beings we need our salaries to survive”; “Pay us our four months salaries before you leave office” and Governor Amaechi please intervene so we can get our salaries” etc.
The protesters who included the aides of the Speaker, Otelemaba Dan-Amachree, said they were being owed over four months salaries and allowances.
The aides were genuinely apprehensive because following the handover by Governor Chibuike Amaechi administration to the incoming administration of Nyesom Wike on 29 May, they might be unable to get their entitlements because they are not civil servants.
The workers wondered how their bosses expect them to survive in a harsh economic environment like Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital and decried the non-payment of their four-months salaries and allowances adversely affecting their families.
One of the aides Tamuno Martins said what is most painful to them is that their children have been chased out of school over unpaid school fees. “Our bosses have made themselves unreachable to at least tell us how much efforts they have made to get our entitlements paid. This is wicked,” he said.
At the time of filing the report no Government House official has addressed the workers.
In separate interviews with some of the aggrieved aides they accused the Speaker, Dan-Amachree and the Chairman of the Assembly Service Commission, Omubo Princewill, of being adamant to their plight.
The protesters alleged that their salaries and allowances had been paid to the Assembly’s service commission through the Speaker, wondering why the funds had been not been remitted into their various salary accounts.
Last week, workers of the Rivers House of Assembly under the aegis of Parliamentary Staff Association embarked on an indefinite strike over unpaid salaries and allowances.
The Parliamentary Staff said they declared the indefinite strike in the state over unpaid allowances by the leadership of the State House of Assembly.
Chairman of the body, Mr Okeleke Liu, who explained the reason behind the strike action said they were owed 2013 and 2014 allowances by the State House of Assembly and all entreaties for them to be paid fell on deaf ears.
He said that all efforts made to meet with the Speaker of the House to resolve the issue were frustrated, adding that, they wrote letters to him that were not replied.
Mrs Ibim Semenitari, the Commissioner for Information and Communications, in her reaction explained that “All civil servants employed by the Government of Rivers State have been paid salaries up to the month of March with plans to commence payment of April salaries.
“The Rivers State Government has continued to ensure the payment of staff salaries because it believes that the welfare of its workers must be paramount in governance.”
However, the workers of Primary Health Care Centres, especially the midwives and others staff have been on strike for the past 10 months over unpaid allowances.