By: Felix Ikpotor
Workers of the Rivers State Emergency Medical Service have protested their unpaid two years salary arrears in Port Harcourt.
The protesters which compromised of nurses, ambulance drivers and security officers carried several placards with inscriptions demanding for their payment.
Leader of the protesting workers, Mr. Nwosu Chisom said they have exhausted all formal means of getting the government’s attention to their plight before embarking on the strike.
“We are here over the issue of our unpaid salaries for two years and our formalisation after ten years. We have met with the sacked commissioner of health, permanent secretary and our director, yet no positive response. We even had a meeting with the speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, yet no response, we wrote a letter to the governor through the Secretary to the State Government and uptill now, there has been no response that’s why we decided to come ourselves to inform the governor of our plight,” he said.
Chisom further pleaded with the governor to come their aid.
Another aggrieved work said: ” I have been working with the Rivers State Emergency Medical Service since 2012 till today, but it has become a norm that everytime they will pay us we must protest. We are protesting here today because for the past two years I have not seen salaries, allowance or anything to proof that I’m working in this place, so we are actually here to find out if we are actually working or we are just being used. If we are working, we should be paid and if we are not working, it should be well defined and be settled to go and rest”.
They also lamented that since 2012 till now, they don’t have any appointment letter backing up the work they are doing here “and I think that’s part of the reason why they are taking us for granted so we need this job to be formalised,” he said.
Similarly, the Rivers State Primary Healthcare Management Board on Tuesday vaccinated drivers and passengers at the popular Abali Park in Port Harcourt as a way of curbing the spread of coronavirus.
They also used the medium to sensitize the people on the importance of taking the vaccine.
