The Catholic Bishop of Uyo Diocese, Rt Rev Dr. John Ebebe Ayah has rejected the sum of N25 million donated by the Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade.
The governor who is a Catholic and also a knight in the Church made the donation during Holy Mass on Wednesday.
Some civil servants in the state have been owed salaries and arrears for over four years.
In May, the civic servants stormed the office of the Head of Service (HoS) at the state Secretariat in Calabar, chanting solidarity songs and displaying placards with different inscriptions such as “Over four years without salaries, who did we offend? Yet we go to work everyday,” “The injustice too much,” “labourer deserves his wages,” “Governor Ayade please pay us our salary.”
Speaking on behalf of the protesters, the coordinator, David Iyaya, said they were aggrieved civil servants from various ministries, departments and agencies employed by the state government in 2018 but had not received a dime since their employment.
He said with the protest, they would draw the attention of the world to their plight.
“We are peaceful citizens and that is why we are demonstrating peacefully. We want the world to know our suffering. Four years is not four days. Even the HoS is somewhere here, he cannot even come out to address us and I know he has nothing to tell us,” he said.
The Bishop who rejected the money requested that the governor uses it to pay the outstanding salaries of the state government workers instead.
The governor had donated the money to the bishop as his transportation cost back to the Akwa Ibom State capital
He said: “Before you depart for your station from Calabar, I will whisper to you”, said Governor Ben Ayade.
“On behalf of my family and the Cross River State government, I’m presenting this N25 million to you”
But the Bishop who said he and the governor were from the same part of the state thanked him for the donation but requested that he he uses it and adds to whatever he had and pay salaries of the civil servants.
“Kindly add the whisper to the salary of your workers. Pay outstanding pensions/gratuities. Improve the economy of the state to be more stable,” the Bishop said.
