Staff of Imo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (ISOPADEC), on Tuesday staged protest in front of the company’s office in Owerri, over an alleged 80 percent slash in their salaries by the government of Senator Hope Uzodimma.
The workers who carried placards with different inscriptions, demanded an immediate end to what they called an outrageous cut in their monthly salaries.
The enraged workers said that no amount of intimidation and clampdown would stop them from demanding complete payment of their salaries.
Fielding questions from newsmen, chairman of the workers’ welfare union, Comrade Chinedu Awuzie and his counterpart, Ifeanyi Adakwa, said despite intimidations by the government, ISOPADEC workers will always fight for their right.
They disclosed that the slash in their salaries, started in June 2020, when they were hit with the new policy by the state government.
They recalled that they had earlier protested along the streets of Owerri when the government arrested 15 of them, including pregnant women and detained them for 35 days in prison custody before court granted them bail.
He said after the second protest, the government sacked 108 of them in a swoop, with the allegation of employment irregularities.
“This action will not deter us. We will continue to ask for our rights. The first protest was on April 7, 2020 and the second one on April 9, 2021.”
When contacted, the spokesperson for the Commission, Promise Ekeh, confirmed that ISOPADEC workers salaries were actually slash. He however said that the Managing Director, Chief Charles Orie, with the help of the board, were engaging the government, in order to find a lasting solution to the problem.
He made it clear that since the oil workers were not entitled to pension, their demand was justifiable.
