No fewer than 100 teachers in government-owned primary and secondary schools in Rivers have a peaceful protest to the Government House over their alleged exclusion from Governor Sim Fubara’s N100,000 Christmas bonus.
PulseNets reports that Governor Fubara had approved the N100,000 bonus for each civil servant during the holidays.
This development sparked wild jubilation from the workers who are members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Rivers state.
The protesting teachers disclosed that while other civil servants in the state had received theirs along with their December 2023 salary, they were yet to get a dime.
The teachers occupied the Government House to express their displeasure over the situation and called on the state government to urgently intervene.
Addressing journalists, one of the teachers simply identified as Oke appealled to Governor Fubara to prevail on those responsible to release the funds to them.
She noted that all civil servants in the state were in a joyous mood when they heard of the approval by the governor, but that the joy of the teachers were cut short when some of them did not receive the alert even till January 2024.
“We were so happy when we heard that the governor approved N100,000 Christmas bonus for all civil servants. So, we assumed that the last Christmas was going to be very great for us. But as we speak today, this is January; a few of us as you can see have not received the Christmas bonus,” she said.
“On Monday schools will be resuming. Most of us travelled and we have returned.
“We have exhausted all we have. So we are here this morning to register our complaints to our dear loving governor to help us talk to those who are holding our Christmas bonus.
“Our N100, 000 Christmas bonus should be released because it will go a long way in cushioning the effect of the hardship especially in this January.”
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Others who spoke accused their banks and the state Universal Basic Education Board for failing to address the matter.
A government official who addressed the protesting teachers commended them for their peaceful disposition and assured that their complaints will be looked into.
