Workers, under the aegis of Oron Urban Development Association, Akwa Ibom State, are at loggerheads with the Chairman, Oron Local GovernmentArea, Mr. Orman Esin, over the sacking of 64 workers.

The workers said their trouble started when they demanded their nine monthsunpaid salaries from Esin.

It was learnt that during the last environmental sanitation, the chairman allegedly gave the workers N500 each as transport fare, but the workers rejected it.

It was further learnt that Esin was embarrassed by the workers’ action and allegedly decided to sack them.

A supervisor, Mr. Esin Williams, told our correspondent that the council owed some of them salaries for between six and nine months.

Williams said, “We are not happy. The chairman is insensitive to our plight as family men and women. Some of us have not received salaries for the pastnine months.

“The problem started when we asked Esin to pay us our salaries or we stop work. Instead of him to address us and pay us for some months; the only answer we could get from him was that we had insulted him and that 64 of us have been sacked.

Another worker, who pleaded anonymity, said they (workers) rejected the offer of N500 because it was a far cry from their predicament.

He said, “The next thing we heard from the chairman was that our services were no longer needed.

“We are giving him one week to pay us our money or else we do it in a traditional way.”

The workers later marched in protest to the palace of the paramount Ruler of Oron, Offong Odiong Akan. The monarch promised to carry their message to the Chairman, adding that he would get back to the aggrieved workers after his meeting with him (Esin).

All efforts to get Esin to react to the allegation were unsuccessful as he neither answered calls to his telephone line nor replied to the text messages sent to him.

Source: Punch-metro