Apparently tired with the seeming unwillingness of the Ayade administration to narrow the nearly N50 billion in unpaid gratuities, some aggrieved retirees in Cross River State took to the streets of Calabar, the state capital, blocking access to the Government House, Calabar.
Local sources say the Government House was inaccessible at the weekend as retirees blocked access into the office premises. They were protesting over unpaid gratuities and pensions.
Governor Ben Ayade and his Plateau State counterpart, Simon Lalong were said to be in the House of Assembly for the valedictory session for a former Speaker of the Assembly, Mike Ogar.
The organised labour in the state has been on an indefinite strike for weeks over the same issue among others. Other include implementation of promotions, minimum wage, incremental rates among others.
In its strike Bulletin 15, labour queried the application of the two tranches of bailout funds and Paris Club refunds by the state. The monies, totaling over N30 billion was meant to aid the payment of salaries, pensions and gratuities.
According to labour, the state owes nearly N50 billion in unpaid gratuities alone dating far back to 1999 for local government retirees and 2014 for state retirees.
While the Ayade administration is said to be responsible for the unpaid gratuities to more than 70 percent of the local government retirees and more than 80 percent of the state retirees, several negotiations have stalled with threats from the State falling on deaf ears.
