Sacked teachers in Adamawa State on Thursday staged a protest at the Government House, demanding payment of 29 months of unpaid salaries.
The protesters expressed frustration over the prolonged delay, calling on the state government to urgently address their situation and settle all outstanding entitlements.
The teachers are part of a batch of 659 educators sacked by the state government they had worked 29 months without pay.
The National Industrial Court on June 13th, 2018 had declared their sack wrongful and ordered the Adamawa State Government to pay N660million in owed arrears and salaries. The breakdown is as follows; N638.9M for 29 months arrears + N22M damages + 1 month salary in lieu of notice.
The sacked teachers have however held multiple protests since 2015, mainly demanding execution of the 2018 court judgment.
The Aggrieved teachers however stormed the government house on Thursday carrying placards with messages such as, “Fintiri, respect court judgment and pay us our money,” reflecting their frustration over what they called a continued disregard for lawful directives.
Speaking on behalf of the group, Ismail Bello painted a grim picture of neglect, noting that many of the students they once taught have since advanced to tertiary institutions, while the teachers’ own lives remain in limbo.
“We taught these children, and today they are in universities, yet we have been abandoned without salaries for 29 months,” Bello lamented.
He stressed that the protest became inevitable after the state government allegedly refused to comply with the court orders that directed it to settle the outstanding entitlements.
Civil rights activist Caleb Umar condemned the government’s stance as “callous and inhumane.”
He further revealed that the state reportedly spent about N900 million on litigation it ultimately lost – an amount, he argued, that could have substantially resolved the salary dispute.
“It is shocking that the government would waste N900 million on a failed legal battle when even half of that sum could have paid these workers and eased their suffering,” Umar said.
The protesters warned that their patience was wearing thin and called on the government to immediately obey the rule of law.
