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Civil servants in Anambra state stayed away from work on Monday, May 8, in defiance of the directive of the state governor, Chukwuma Soludo, that they should resume work every Monday.
Soludo, during the last May Day rally, described the act as a deliberatgajne absence of civil servants from duty under the excuse of sit-at-home order.
He also threatened to slash salaries of those who abscond from work on Mondays.
However, public institutions, including schools, banks and markets across the state were empty on Monday, May 8.
Meanwhile, chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Anambra state chapter, Emeka Nwafor, asked Soludo to provide workers coming to work to Awka, the state capital, on Mondays with vehicles and security personnel in view of the sit-at-home order.
He described as suicidal, workers coming to work in Awka on Mondays from areas like Ihiala, Onitsha and Aguata with commercial vehicles without government’s assured security arrangements.
Nwafor noted that by so doing, workers would feel safe and comfortable to shun sit-at-home order and continue and come to work on Mondays, as directed by Governor Soludo.
He also maintained that the vehicles would not only convey the workers to their respective offices, but take them back to their destinations at the end of the day.
Nwafor said that, “It will be suicidal for workers coming from areas like Ihiala, Onitsha and Aguata to board commercial vehicles on Mondays to travel to Awka and go back after the day’s work without assured security arrangements by the government.
“If the governor wants all the workers to be coming to work on Mondays, he should provide buses to convey workers to Awka every Monday and then provide security to guide and protect the workers at the Secretariat until the day is over.
“And the vehicles would equally take the workers back to their respective destinations at the end of the day.
“Commercial vehicles are still afraid of plying the roads on Mondays for fear of being attacked by hoodlums enforcing the illegal sit-at-home order,” he added.
It is pertinent that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) which introduced the Monday sit-at-home order in the south-east in 2021, to protest the arrest of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, had continuously said that it has suspended the order.
However, residents of the state have continued to observe it for fear of attack.
Source: TheStreetJournal | Read More
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