The Federal Ministry of Finance workers on Monday staged a peaceful protest at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja, demanding the removal of
The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, has run into troubled waters, with workers of the ministry she heads asking her to go.
The workers, in a peaceful protest in Abuja on Monday, accused Adeosun of not paying their allowances to the tune of N1.2 billion even when she has collected N30 million as annual house rent.
Adeosun, a former commissioner in Ogun State, is one of the key ministers of President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
By he postion, she is supposed to the arrowhead of the government’s economic re-engineering. Some critics believe that the incumbent administration is yet to come out with a coherent economic vision capable of leading the country out of its current economic quagmire.
The workers were carrying placards with various inscriptions, saying that Mrs Adeosun has become an agent of negative change.
The various placards read:
“Kemi Adeosun must go”
“You are destroying Federal Ministry of fiancé”
“Inflation is 15% courtesy of Adeosun”
“PMB agent of positive change, Adeosun agent of negative change” “Adeosun score card is zero.”
The Permanent Secretary, Mahmud Isa-Dutse, said the N1.2 billion was an illegal payment that the workers have been receiving at the beginning of the year before now.
According to him, the was not to be captured in the Ministry’s 2016 Budget, hence Adeosun’s position not to pay the staff the sum.
A top official of the ministry who would not want to be named dismissed the workers claims, saying there was no basis for the workers’ protest.
On the claim of the workers about unpaid salaries, he said the only salary yet to be paid was that of June, which is not yet due for payment.
He described the demand for the N1.2 billion as “illegal” as it was not captured in the 2016 Budget.
As at press time, policemen have been deployed to the Ministry to prevent the protest from getting out of hand.
The protesters were restricted to the space within the Ministry.
They were not allowed to get onto the road.
The Ministry workers are also said to have received their salaries up to May.
