The angry women in their fifties and sixties, littered the front of the governor’s office with debris to show their displeasure over the delay in payment of salaries.
One of the protesters, 60-year-old Nkoyo Effiong, lamented that they had been left to die of hunger for the past four months despite sweeping the streets on daily basis.
She said: “We are here to let the governor know that we have not been paid for four months. In 2015, they refused to pay us for six months and now they want to go away with our four months salaries.
“Those of us who are sweepers are paid differently, some are paid N5,000, N8,000 and some are paid N10,000 monthly. There are those we call rakers, and they collect N15,000 monthly. We just want them to give us our money before they leave office,” she said.
Another elderly woman in her fifties, who simply gave her name as Afia, lamented that they normally come out as early as 4:30a.m., taking risk yet, they are not appreciated.
She stressed that some of her colleagues, who were knocked down by moving vehicles, lost their lives, while some were either used for money rituals or raped, but they still take the risk just to have food on the table for their families.
