Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade on Wednesday locked out more than 50 workers in the Governor’s Office, claiming they came late to work.
The governor, who spent more than two months out of the state in the name of looking for investors, arrived the Governor’s Office, Calabar on Wednesday around 8am and 30 minutes later ordered the closure of of the gate, leaving several workers stranded.
However, some of the workers who spoke to our correspondent criticised the action of the governor, saying there is no justification for it because “he has not paid salaries for two months now and we have been carrying letters of promotion for three years now without implementation.”
One of the civil servants, who refused to give his name for security reasons, added that morale of workers in the state “is very low,” and that even the governor “has been away from office for two months now”.
However, speaking on the development, the Head of Service, Mr. Timothy Akwaji said the decision to discipline the workers was as a result of lateness.