Aged women engaged by authority of the Cross River government to keep the streets of Calabar metropolis of Calabar South and Calabar Municipality LGA on Tuesday took to the streets of Calabar and blocked entrance of the governor’s office, protesting four months’ stipends owed them.
Not pleased with the development, security operatives at the governor’s office attempted to calm them.
The group spokesperson, Nkoyo Etim Effiong, who said she is 60 years old expressed anger over the unfortunate situation saying that four months of unpaid stipends was too hard for them to bear.
“We are here to let the governor know that we have not been paid for four months. In 2015, they refused to pay us for six months and now they want to go away with our four months salaries,” the spokesperson said.
Effiong stated that some of them were being paid N5,000 monthly while others were paid N10,000 monthly and wondered why the government cannot defray a small debt as the amount mentioned above.
“Those of us who are sweepers are paid differently. There are those collect N5,000, N8,000 and N10,000 monthly. There are those we call wreckers and they collect N15,000 a month. We just want them to give us our money before they leave office,” Effiong maintained.
One of the elderly street sweepers Mrs. Emana Cobham lamented how much risk is taken to embark on the sweeping especially as early as 4.30am, where they have to be at their duty post, irrespective of the danger that it may pose, stressing that once you are a sweeper, you have to be at duty pose whether it is raining or sun is shining.
She recalled the many times she would have been knocked down by vehicles plying the roads on the early morning while she was struggling to perform her task.
She said they have recorded incidents where some women were raped with others even lost their lives to accident with several others robbed of their mobile phones and other valuables by criminals while performing their task.
