Some Federal workers on Wednesday protested at the frontage of the Federal Secretariat, Ikolaba Ibadan, in Oyo State as directed by the Federal Workers Forum, over poor welfare.

The forum’s National Coordinator, Andrew Emelieze, and Secretary General, Itoro Obong, said the protest followed a 21-day ultimatum issued to the government.

The workers are demanding immediate payment of the five-month wage award arrears, the implementation of the 40 per cent peculiar allowance, and the payment of its arrears.

However, dozens of federal workers were seen carrying placards with various inscriptions such as ‘Pay us five months wage awards,70k minimum wage is a failure,’ Federal Workers have suffered enough,’ ‘FG workers live on loans,’ among others.

Addressing journalists, Mr Emelieze, alleged that the federal government has been “cheating its workforce over the years, and it has got to a stage where workers can no longer endure.”

Mr Emelieze said workers called for the indefinite national protest because they could no longer cope with hardship they are facing.

According to him, part of the forum demands immediate payment of outstanding five months wage award.

He said the government stopped the wage award payment in March 2024, since then no federal worker has received the money contrary to government claim that it already paid the five months wage award arrears.

He stated, “In addition, we demand implementation of a 40 per cent peculiar allowance and the payment of its arrears. The 70,000 minimum wage is unacceptable to us, it’s a slave wage, we are rejecting it and call for its immediate upward review. We equally want immediate review of the heavy taxation of the federal workers’ poor wage.’’

He further urged the federal government to prioritise the welfare of its workforce, saying workers are the engine room of government, “without it, governance will collapse”.

He called on President Bola Tinubu to reason with the workers and direct the relevant agencies of government to act fast on the workers’ demands.

Mr Emelieze said the protest would hold from morning till noon every day until the federal government yielded to the workers’ demands.

(NAN)