Incessant appeals to management of NITEL and Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) seem to have fallen on deaf ears, leaving them no choice but to take their complaint to the Federal Government.
Staff union leader, Elias Kazzah, said, “we have not got any information from the BPE over our two years salary but we have been consulting and contacting government officials to look into our case.”
“It is a pathetic case. Workers are dying; they can’t cater to their families. We have also reported the case to the Human Rights Commission that this is unfair, that citizens of this country are been maltreated like this without salaries for over two years.”
He added that “recently, our junior workers visited the minister of State for Information and communication, Labaran Maku, to brief him on the situation but as I am talking to you, we have not received any positive result.”
Kazzah said though workers have no new idea on how to handle the situation, but said they have not lost hope. “We have done everything possible, but we are thinking of assembling all our members at our office in Abuja, this week. At that meeting a decision would be taken on how to go about the issue.”
Several attempts to sell NITEL’s assets have been clouded by controversy and accusations of fraud, with a number of named bidders denying their involvement in the process.
