Kano street sweepers have staged a peaceful protest against the alleged refusal of the Refuse Management and Sanitation Board (REMASAB) to pay their salaries in the last 10 months.
However, in a swift reaction, the Managing Director of the Board, Amadu Haruna Zago, said, “As far as we are concerned, those protesting are aliens to us, we don’t know them because they are not in our records”.
The sweepers in their protest called on the managing director of the board, Alhaji Ahmad Danzago, to pay their salaries.
Also, some of them who begged that their name should not be in print, complained about how dangerous their job is, narrating how some of them had been killed in the course of duty at different locations across Kano City.
While speaking on the condition of anonymity, one of them said, “Well, concerning this issue, we pray that our salaries will be released, especially those of those who are working for the companies.
“These companies that employ us are in charge of keeping the highways and motorways of the state clean”.
“We risk our lives to keep the state clean, and we have also lost a lot of lives among those of us sweeping the roads in the state.
“Abdullahi Gumel lost his life at Murtala Muhammad Way Underpass; Malam Ado, Malam Rabi’u, also lost his life at Gadon Kaya Bridge; Fatima; and others are people who lost their lives while working for REMASAB,” the source added.
“I am 70 years old. My husband cannot work because he’s disabled, I am also among the road sweepers of Kano. We sleep the road from Mondays to Saturdays, the only day we have to rest is Sunday,” another protester said.
“I am crying because we have not been paid. The government has given the money to our employers, but for the past 15 months, we haven’t received a penny from our salaries.
“We are pleading because among us there are people who have children, and those children are orphans, some of us are suffering from daily feeding, and some of us are being sent out of our homes because we are not able to afford the money for our house rents.
“We are pleading with the governor (Abba Kabir Yusuf) and Dr. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso to tackle this issue, and to make sure that our salaries are paid to us,” she added.
The respondents said the owed salaries are about 11 months, including those from the previous administration of Abdullahi Ganduje.
While commenting on the allegation levelled by the protesters that the agency owed them over ten months’ salaries, the Managing Director of the Board, Amadu Haruna Zago, said, “As far as we are concerned those protesting so-called unpaid salaries workers are aliens to us, we don’t know them because they are not in our records”.
According to him, “When we came in almost seven months ago, we investigated the actual numbers of workers we have, and at the end of the verification exercise we conducted
“We discovered that we inherited about 1082 workers and we paid them”.
He further disclosed that; “Before conducting their verification, they ensured that we used their supervisors and auditor and at the end of verification of every worker from the streets and after thorough diligence we paid them four months salaries”.
He also stated that 90 percent of the workers are on casual basis and from adding that from messenger to cleaner and up to the street sweepers, “we paid them June, July, August and September salaries and we don’t have any problems with anybody”.
Danzago however stated that the Board is ready to pay anybody who turns in as an authentic worker of the place after verification.
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