Henry Emeana
Workers of the Imo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (ISOPADEC,) on Tuesday, staged protest in front of their office in Owerri over 80 percent slash in their salaries.
Armed with placards with various inscriptions depicting their anger the aggrieved workers also expressed displeasure ,barricading others from gaining access into the secretariat.
The protesting staff demanded an immediate end to what they called an “outrageous” cut in their monthly salaries,adding that no amount of intimidation and clampdown would stop them from demanding complete payment of their salaries.
Speaking respectively, the chairman of the oil workers, comrade Chinedu Awuzie, and his Welfare counterpart, Ifeanyi Adakwa,” despite these intimidations by the government, ISOPADEC workers will always fight for their right.”
The chairman, Awuzie, disclosed that the slash in their salaries, started in join 2020, when they were hit the new policy by the state government.
He said “In their first protest, the government arrested 15 of us, including pregnant women and detained them for 35 days in prison custody before court granted them bail.In the second protest, the government sacked 108 of us in a swoop, alleging employment irregularities. But this development will not deter us. We continue to ask for our rights. The first protest was on April 7 2020 and the second one on April 9, 2021.”
Eastern Voice was reliably informed that even the board members in ISOPADEC and their aides had not received their allowances and salaries since January, 2021.
When contacted, the spokesperson for the Commission, Promise Ekeh, confirmed that ISOPADEC workers salaries witnessed slash, but that the Managing Director, Chief Charles Orie, with the help of the board was engaging the government to finding a lasting solution to the problem.
He said that since the oil workers were not entitled to pension, their demand was justifiable.
One of the enraged workers who pleaded anonymity said no single project has been executed in the oil producing LGAs, despite the billions that have entered the Commission’s account in the last one year.
He called on Imo State government to do the needful and release funds meant for the LGAs to enable the local government benefit what other oil producing states enjoy.
