Street cleaners protest in Kwara

Street cleaners, comprising of indigent women in Kwara state, staged a peaceful protest on Monday to demand payment of their three-month outstanding salaries from the state government.

The aggrieved street cleaners (mostly women), who are workers of the state Waste Management Company, carried placards with various inscriptions such as; “Pay us our three months salaries”, “We get a meager N7,500 as salary”, and “We have families to cater for”, among others, and moved around Ilorin metropolis in their numbers.

They went through Emir’s Road, popular Post Office area, and to the state Ministry of Environment as well as Government House, along Ahmadu Bello Way.

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Speaking with journalists, one of the women, Mrs. Saadatu Yunusa, said that they earn N7,500 monthly, adding that they were owed three months’ salaries.

Mrs. Yunusa also said that they had to embark on the protest when dialogue with appropriate government authorities failed to yield the desired result.

She urged the state government to pity their conditions and ensure prompt payment of their salaries, which, she said, was not enough in the first instance.

Also speaking, Madam Hamidat Rabiu, regret that they had worked for more than 15 years without any review of salary.

She also said that the salary has not been sufficient, adding that half of the salary was usually spent on transportation and other logistics.

In her reaction, the Press Secretary in the state Ministry for Environment, Mrs. Folasade Yusuf said, the street cleaners were owed two months’ salary, adding that arrangement was on to pay the salaries soon.