Members of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have staged a protest at the Federal Ministry of Finance, demanding the payment of long-overdue allowances and improved welfare.
The demonstrators, mainly workers from the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority under the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), accused the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, of ignoring repeated appeals to address their statutory entitlements.
Clad in red shirts and armed with placards, the protesters shut the gates of the ministry, preventing vehicles from accessing the premises and forcing other civil servants to abandon work for the day.
Speaking to journalists at the scene, Patrick Solomon, Industrial Relations Officer of the Authority, said the ministry’s prolonged silence had left the workers with no option but to take to the streets.
“Our Internally Generated Revenue has been withheld for over 15 months without justification. The allowances owed to us remain unpaid, and all our engagements with the ministry have yielded nothing,” Solomon lamented.
He described the situation as “a blatant display of insensitivity” and urged the federal government to intervene before the crisis deepens.
