Civil servants in the Ministry of Works revolted against the minister, David Umahi, after he locked them out of their offices for the lateness on Thursday.
The minister ordered the gates locked once it was beyond the official resumption time.
It turned out that the mass of the workers were affected by the action and they started protesting what they called the high-handedness of the minister, as many of them complained that they go through a lot to get to their offices from their various homes every day.
The protesting staff, who were chanting “Umahi Must Go”, lamented that they reside far away and there was no way they could come to the office early.
A senior staff, who spoke to Leadership on condition of anonymity, said the major reason for their coming to work late was because of the distance of where they lived. He said some of them lived as far as Gwagwalada, Keffi, Abaji, Kuje, Kwali, and Kaduna Road satellite towns. He added that they sometimes joined their colleagues who had cars to reduce the cost of transportation.
“That some of them are on hundred thousand naira salary a month, some are on N80,000 salary a month and they are married people. So by the time you subtract both transport and everything, you have nothing left. So, they have to rely on one way or the other to come to office,” he said.
It was learnt that the minister later allowed them in but they refused to enter the Ministry’s building, insisting that the minister should come out and address them.
According to them, their desire was for the minister to take measures about their late coming, adding that he did not warn or issue any circular to inform them that he was going to lock them out.
Watch a clip of the protest here.
