Security workers of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, have threatened to carry out a peaceful protest over non-payment of their monthly salaries for over six months.

The Commission’s security workers in Delta and Rivers states, who disclosed their planned protest to Vanguard, yesterday, described the withholding of their salaries in this harsh economy as strangulation and wickedness in the highest order.

Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, a security worker in Delta State, who pleaded anonymity for fear of losing his job, alleged that monies meant for payment of their salaries were consecutively diverted to other businesses over the past six months, leaving them to suffer with their families.

“We as security guards of the NDDC have been faithful in the discharge of our duties in securing properties of the Commission across the Niger Delta states. But, despite our dedication to duty, the Commission has refused to pay our monthly salaries for over six months.

“They would promise to pay us the following month, and when the month expired, they would promise the next one. Now, we are fed up as we’re going through untold hardship, we’re going through hunger as I’m talking to you.

“We are over forty employees in each state of the region securing NDDC’s properties such as offices, warehouses, equipment and other facilities across the region. We’re all Niger Deltans and we are using this medium to call on the management of NDDC to pay us our salary arrears”, he said.

Also speaking on condition of anonymity, a security officer of the Commission in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, said the planned protest would be imminent if the management failed to respond to their call.

“If the management of NDDC failed to feel our pains, if they failed to consider our sufferings in this harsh economy, we will have no other option than to go on with our planned protest”, he said.

However, efforts to speak with the Executive Director Finance and Administration, EDFA of NDDC, Maj. Gen. A. Charles, were futile as his number was unreasonable at the time of filing this report. (Vanguard)

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