No fewer than 2,000 street cleaners engaged by Gombe State Government, yesterday, barricaded the entrance to the State House in protest against their “unlawful layoff.”
The protesters are staff of INEX cleaners, the contractor cleaning the state.
Managing Director of INEX, Dr. Abubakar Ali Gombe, a former chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) recently decamped to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Consequently, the cleaning contract with the company was terminated, with many of the workers were thrown into the street.
But staff of the company, who are mainly women, besieged Gombe Government House as early as 6:30 a.m. and appealed to Governor Muhammadu Yahaya not to visit their boss’ flaws on them.
A source close to Ali said: “Oga is not bothered, he foresaw that his contract would be terminated, but he is more concerned about rescuing the state from maladministration.”
A Government House source had told The Guardian that in spite of the face-off, the governor ordered that none of the over 2,000 cleaners should be disengaged, but absorbed under a new arrangement.
However, in the process of the new arrangement, the management of the state Environmental Protection Agency (GOSEPA), allegedly demanded that money be paid for purchase of form, which the women refused to comply with, insisting that the governor instructed that they be engaged freely.
It was learnt that following the disagreement, GOSEPA allegedly decided to sell the form to willing residents at N2,000.
Speaking to newsmen on the issue, the General Manager of GOSEPA, Muhammad Ahmed Kumo, said the cleaning of the state was monopolised by INEX, and the state needed to decentralise the process.
He stated that the state had engaged Bapton Green Star and Cosmopolitan Cleaners to replace INEX Cleaners.
Kumo assured that none of the 2,000 INEX staff would lose their jobs, recalling: “the governor once told me that INEX is part of his family and asked me: GM, do you want my family broken?” (The Guardian)

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