By PHILIP YATAI

Workers of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) under the aegis of Joint Action Congress (JUAC) on Monday, shut the gate of the Administration’s secretariat over welfare concerns.

Some of the concerns according to the President of JUAC, Mrs Rifkatu Iortyer, were non-payment of overhead to run offices since December 2024, no training and retraining of staff, and no promotion.

Others are inconsistency in payment of salaries and prolonged primary healthcare workers and teachers strike among other issues.

Iortyer acknowledged the efforts of the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, to transform the FCT Administration through life-impacting reforms.

She particularly lauded Wike for facilitating the establishment of the FCT Civil Service Commission, which allows career progression to the rank of a Permanent Secretary among others.

She, however, said that workers welfare had remained decimal, a development that plunged many workers into a state of despair.

“We are protesting for so many things and we are not happy over a lot of things.

“We no longer go on training anymore.

“From December last year, there was no overhead to run the offices. We go from office to office to borrow paper to work.

“No promotion since clearing of the backlog the Wike-led administration met in August 2023. Since that time, there’s been no promotion, only appointments of Permanent Secretaries,” she said.

The president also said that casual workers of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board and other agencies have not been paid since December 2024.

“They may not be career civil servants but they are the ones that sweep the streets; they are the ones that attend to the cemetery; and they are the ones that attend to the mortuary.

“Yes, we don’t have casual workers in career civil service but we already have them and then you say you will not pay them?

“If the FCTA doesn’t want casual workers then it should absorb them because they are humans and have families to feed,” she said.

Noting that primary schools were under the purview of the area councils, she said that Wike, as the father of all, needs to intervene and address the protracted strike by the teachers.

She said that the protest would last for three days, after which if nothing was done, the workers would reconvene and decide a new course of action.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that no official has come out to address the protesting workers at the time of filing this report. (NAN)

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