Hundreds
of angry men and women on Tuesday, gathered at the Gowon Estate football pitch,
chanting solidarity songs.
They
described themselves as members of Federal Task Force.
They explained that
their job description was to take care of federal government facilities,
including highway maintenance and traffic control. According to them, they also
used to educate road users and generate funds for the federal government.
Three
years ago, the federal government shut down the task force, but promised to
reinstate them later. It had been three years now, yet they hadn’t received
their promised disengagement allowances. They have also not been reinstated.
The
officials said they all came from different states, to gather at Gowon in order
to express their displeasures and frustrations in a peaceful manner.
A human
right activist, Chaplain Darlington Ajitemisan, who was with them at the scene,
said: “I’m pleading with the FG to return these Federal Task Force officials to
work and pay their salaries.”
One of
them said: “We’re the Federal Task Force that was employed in 2012 under the
federal government structure in the days of Jonathan. We were engaged legally
and satisfied with the employment. We’re over 15,000 employees and mostly
graduates. We were employed for three years with no allowances. No salary has
been paid to us, but due to the patriotism we have for this nation, we were steadfast.
Wet kept hoping that one day, the government would pay us.”
It
was gathered that in January 2012, the task force officials were asked to leave
office by the FG. The FG further told promised the officials would be
reinstated at the appropriate time.
“But since
2012, till date, this people had not been recalled,” said Ajitemisan. “There
are 51000 able bodied men and women here. They have families at home. They have
to pay rent and yet no payment had been paid to them. They have been to Abuja;
House of Assembly, House of Representatives, yet no solution to their troubles.
I want Nigeria and Nigerians to know one thing’ the present day slogan is ‘change.’
Let change manifest change in this season of change. This people are not
volatile. They can be volatile, but they refused to be. They choose the pathway
of peace. As a human right activist, I’m happy to identify with this group.
“We have
what we call the Nigeria Vision Project. The project is that, if power changes and another
government come into power, the Nigeria
vision must continue. President Muhammadu Buhari promised that three
million Nigerians would be employed. This is half of the year, so 1.5million people
ought to have been employed now.”
He urged
the Buhari led government to look into the lamentations of the protesters.
Another
member of the task force, Adeolaokiki
Olatokunbo, said: “We’re pleading with FG to reinstate us. We are graduates of
this country. Youths of Nigeria. We were called to service and trained, yet for
three years now we’ve not been paid. We’re pleading with FG to give us back our
jobs and pay us our allowances. We however heard that the salaries and
allowances had been paid, but it hadn’t gotten to us. And this is December! Imagine
a family man going home and at the end of the month no salary.”
Olatokunbo added: “Most of us are at the
mercies of our landlords today. We’re pleading with the FG to come to our aid.
We heard that they want to employ. We are begging them to give us our job and
money.”
Popoola
Akin Moses, another member, implored all Nigerians to intervene in the
issue. Moses said: “For three years, we were trained and deployed to different
local government areas. It was not easy at all! We are saying no to violence!
But we refused to be vagabonds.”
Moses said
that letters had been sent to different government authorities, but no fruitful
responses yet.
Moses
added: “We have submitted our working documents to the National Assembly to
handle our issue. We believe in Buhari. He is a man of his words. He should
approve us. We’re still going back to Abuja soon.”
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