The entrance to the office of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, was blocked on Monday by members of the Joint Union Action Committee (JUAC), protesting the non-payment of staff salaries, the ongoing FCT primary school teachers’ strike, and the failure to pay wage awards to health workers.
The protesters prevented workers from entering or leaving the premises while demanding the dismissal of Emeka Ezeh, the Chairman of the FCT Civil Service Commission.
As Persecondnews previously reported, JUAC President Rifkatu Iortyer had issued a statement on Thursday, calling on affiliate unions to participate in a three-day protest from Monday, June 30, to July 2, 2025, against the FCT Minister’s “blatant refusal to address salient issues affecting staff.”
Addressing the protesters on Monday, Iortyer accused the Wike-led FCT administration of failing to pay overhead costs, neglecting to promote eligible retired staff, and creating discrepancies in salary payments.
She said: “We cannot work when overhead is not released. We held a meeting with one of them and they say is overhead not for the directors? Is that true? Is it not for working? How can somebody as high-ranking as that say that overhead is for directors? It means they don’t even know.
“But I want them to know that from that overhead is what we use to work. It is a recurrent for office maintenance and other things that should be used for work. But we do not have it.
“My anger is more for our members that have retired when they are supposed to be in a particular cadre since 2024. They don’t even have a chance. If you were to be an assistant director and you retired in 2024, it means they have gone with your career progression. And so they stunted you, that is the end, even when you qualified.
“Do you understand your salary every month? Today, you see this amount. Next tomorrow, you see this amount. Me, I don’t know what my salary is. And so we do not understand.”
The President also lamented the failure of the administration to pay hazard allowance arrears of health workers, and the stoppage of workers’ salaries by the Chairman of the FCT Civil Service Commission, describing it as an unfair initiative.
She also said: “Health workers’ hazard arrears not paid. Our auxiliary staff, enforcement squad, those people at the mortuary, those people at the cemetery, their monies are not being paid. The letter for the stoppage of this salary was written on the 10th of March by the commission chairman. Is he supposed to give us those kinds of directives?
“And as you engage even auxiliary staff, there is a procedure. You let people know you want their salary to stop at so-so amount. You don’t just abruptly stop people’s salary. In this hard economy, is that fair? That is the initiative of the Chairman. And we don’t think it is right.”
Declaring his support for the protesters, the Chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), FCT Chapter, Audu Akogwu, described workers who did not join the protests as “saboteurs” and “betrayers”.
He faulted the suspension of overhead costs, stating that workers had to buy their own papers and pens to work.
Akogwu also faulted the Minister’s failure to prevail over the Area Council Chairmen to pay striking teachers and workers of the Area Councils, adding that he doubted if there were payments to the Chairmen.
He said: “We are dying; FCTA workers are dying, no overhead. The Permanent Secretaries have been regulated to nothing, the Directors are dead. Staff buy paper before they work. They buy pen before they work. No promotion for 2023, 2024, and today we are in 2025. No training for any staff, how do you want productivity?
“Primary schools are on strike, with local government workers, over a hundred days. Our children are on the streets, and you say you have given the local government bailout funds.
“The bailout funds you gave them, are they not accountable to you? As a governor, he was the one controlling the Local Governments in Rivers State.
“Why can’t he control the area councils here and put them on their toes to make sure they do justice to the bailout funds he gave them? That fund, I do not trust it, because if he gave them, the area councils are not more powerful than the Minister himself.”
The Chairman urged the MInister to come to the aid of workers in the FCT, noting that following the “warning” by virtue of the protests, he will mobilise members of affiliate unions to shutdown all FCT offices.
He also said: “Whoever has ear to hear, should help us tell him to come to the aid of the workers. This is just a warning. First day, second and third day, that is our protest.
“From then, we are shutting down the whole office. I promise, I am going to mobilise all the TUC affiliates in Abuja. We are going to shut down every FCT office.”
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