Teachers in seven local government areas of Ebonyi State began an indefinite strike on Thursday.
The strike declared by the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Ebonyi State chapter, was to protest the failure of chairmen of the affected local government areas to clear the backlog of member’s outstanding salaries.
The affected local government areas are Ebonyi, Edda, Ezza South, Ezza North, Ivo, Ishielu and Ohaukwu.
A statement by the union secretary, Bassey Asuquo, said the strike was an offshoot of non-payment of at least three months’ salaries to some teachers in the affected local government area.
The statement read, “Sequel to our earlier notice on mobilisation for industrial strike action, we have thoroughly reviewed the compliance of local government chairmen regarding the clearance of our members’ salaries.
“As of the close of work today, February 5, 2025, we acknowledge that certain local government areas have cleared the salaries of our members.
“However, we regret to inform you that several local government chairmen have failed to clear the backlog of our members’ outstanding salaries.
“In response to this non-compliance, we hereby declare indefinite strike action in the following Local Government Areas: Edda, Ebonyi, Ezza South, Ezza North, Ishielu, Ivo and Ohaukwu.”
The statement mandated state and branch NUT officers in the affected local government areas to enforce compliance with the strike.
“All our state and branch officers in the affected local government areas are instructed to adhere strictly to this directive and ensure the immediate enforcement of the strike action from midnight on Thursday 6th of February, 2025.
“This includes organizing and maintaining solidarity picket lines and monitoring the Compliance of the strike action across the affected localities”, the statement said.
The Union noted that the failure of the local government chairmen to meet their obligations to its members was unacceptable, vowing not to relent until its demands were met.
A teacher, who pleaded anonymity, confirmed that some teachers in the seven local government areas owed salaries.
“Some local government chairmen are owing some teachers in their areas. We are being owed from October 2024 to January 2025. I don’t know when the strike will be called off.”
Another teacher in Ezza South LGA, claimed, “Even the December N150,000 incentive that the Governor gave to government workers was not given to us. Even after concluding that primary school teachers will be given N75,000, till now, we have not received any.”
When contacted, the Commissioner for Education in Ebonyi State (Basic), Prof. Paul Nwaobasi, said the development has yet to get to his table.
Efforts to reach the Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, Ebonyi State chapter, and Chairman of Ebonyi LGA, Mr Chinedu Uburu, failed.
Calls put across to his mobile were not picked and they were yet to return the calls as of the time of filing this story.
