From Ochei Matthew, Asaba
Primary school teachers in Delta state have been gnashing their teeth over what they described as “deliberate maltreatment and wickedness” on the part of government over non-payment of their salaries after being persuaded to suspends their one-week strike.
The teachers, who spoke to newsmen on condition of anonymity, lamented the untold hardship they currently faced in the state, stressing that if nothing is done to alleviate their sufferings sickness and consequently death will explode like a bomb in their ranks.
They said: “We went on strike as a result of salaries owed, and government threaten NUT and persuaded us to call off the strike with a view to paying us our December salary. To our greatest surprise till date we have not received any salary, which kind of wickedness is this?
“We pay transports to work, where are they expecting us to get the money? Is it possible to teach on empty stomach? Consider our children too. All these the government could not put into consideration and they force us to resume school without doing the needful.”
The teachers called on the Federal Government to come to their aid before the situation turn worse.
However, Commissioner for Information, Mr. Patrick Ukah, said the state government has no hand in payment of primary school teachers.
The commissioner explained this while briefing newsmen at Government House, Asaba shorting after the executive council meetingled by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa on Tuesday.
He disclosed that the state government augment council workers’ salary with 10 per cent of its internal generation revenue (IGR).
Ukah said: “I don’t know why the issue of primary school teachers’ salary continue to generate uproar, we have three tires of government and the local government is saddle with the responsibility of paying primary school teachers, certainly not the state.”
Ukah explained that some factors had affected the revenue accruable to local government, like the Excravos line which had been closed for years and low price of crude oil.
“Automatically the share that comes to local government reduced drastically and they are finding it difficult to pay salary of not only teachers but the council workers whom they are owing over nine months,” he added.
The commissioner disclosed that six more roads have been approved by the state executive council for construction, noting DLA road that was approved before had been withdrawn because of the raining season.
He appealed to residents of DLA road to be patient with government, promising that the contractor will be mobilized to site after the raining season in October.
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