Unbelievable! Imo government issues last warning to protesting teachers over 12months unpaid salary

By Ben Ugorji, Owerri

The Governor of Imo state, Senator Hope Uzodinma has threatened to arrest any protesting teacher, worker or pensioner in the state, insisting that his government is owing no one.

He said those protesting against the directive of the government were not only ghost workers but rented protesters by enemies of the government to misinform the public.

The Governor who spoke through his Commissioner for Information, further accused the protesting of constituting nuisance in the state and misinforming the public, warning those who engage in that, to desist or have themselves to blame.

Primary and secondary school teachers in the state on Thursday took to the streets of Owerri, the state capital, demanding for a 12months unpaid salary arrears.

The protesters numbering over 300 stormed the government house, Owerri with their employment details and placards, painting the government in bad light.

Mrs. Grace Ajaelu, one of the protesting teachers who spoke to journalists, said she had spent 29 years in service, lamenting that the she had not received salary since Governor Hope Uzodinma came on board.

“I was employed and started teaching in 1992, but since the tenure of Senator Hope Uzodinma, I have not received a dime. The last salary I got was in February 2020.

“This is complete 12months now, no salary. Why would the Governor tag us ‘ghost workers’ after 29 years of active service. This is height of insensitivity and callousness.

“I’m getting ready for my retirement. I have no other source of livelihood as a widow. How would I take care of myself and family. Hunger is ravaging us in the house. This is the means from which I pay my family bills. Now the government has refused to pay me and called me a ghost worker. God why!

“I appeal to the Governor to tamper justice with mercy and pay us our one year salary arrears. We are dying gradually.”

Another teacher from Mbaitoli LGA who gave her name as Juliet Akalazu, said that the Governor was suffocating to death. She disclosed that she had spent eight in active service.

Hear her, “since March last year, I have not received any kobo as a salary. This government is wicked and insensitive,” she added.

Meanwhile, the government, through its Commissioner for Information, Declan Emelumba, had described the protesting teachers as ghost workers mixed with hired crowd by the enemies of the government to misinform the public.

Emelumba spoke to some journalists in response to the protest.