The highway sweepers under the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) on Monday stormed the Lagos State House of Assembly protesting non-payment of their salary arrears by the state government.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that the sweepers were protesting the non-payment of five months salary by the authority.
They carried placards with various inscriptions
such as “We deserve to be paid for our toiling”;
“Life is now difficult, save us from poverty”; “Help
us, we have suffered much,” among others.
The sweepers urged the state lawmakers to
intervene in order to alleviate the economic
hardship they were experiencing.
According to them, the refusal of LAWMA to pay
their salaries for five months consecutively, has
made life unbearable for them.
One of the sweepers, Mrs Yemisi Oresanwo, noted
that life had become difficult for her and her family
since they had been transfer from the
Ministry of the Environment (MOE) to
LAWMA, Oresanwo, who is a supervisor for Ikeja zone, explained that sweepers received N12,000 while supervisors collected N20,000 monthly.
She said that it had been difficult for the sweepers
and their supervisors to survive.
“I am being owed five months while others are
also being owed between three and four months
salary.
“So we want government to come to our aid.
“Since we were transferred from MOE to LAWMA,
the latter has been responsible for payment of our
salaries until recently when they refused to pay us.
“LAWMA has been paying its own workers but has
neglected us,’’ she said.
Also speaking, Mr Abidemi Najeem, representing
Jibowu-Fadeyi zone of the sweepers, said that the
sweepers could no longer bare the hardship arising
from non-payment of their salary.
“Schools will resume this month and we anticipate
further hardship as we may not be able to pay our
children’s school fees, if this situation continues.
“We are also expecting Ileya festival (Eid-Ul-Kabir);
how do they expect us to take care of ourselves
and family members?’’ he queried.
Najeem urged the state government to clarify the
ambiguity about whether the sweepers were under
LAWMA or MOE.
Efforts to get official comments from the LAWMA
proved abortive as telephone calls to its Managing
Director, Mr Abdulwahab Ogunbiyi were not
answered.
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