No fewer than 85 workers and visitors were locked out at the Governor's Office in Ilorin, Kwara State, on Tuesday.

The governor's office complex is made up of offices of workers under the office of the Secretary to the State Government, the Head of Service, the Ministry of Justice and some other agencies of the state government.

The Punch correspondent gathered that the Head of Service, Hajia Zahra Omar, had secretly given a directive on Monday that the gate of the complex should be locked on Tuesday by 8am, when civil servants in the state were expected to have resumed.

Many of the senior and juniors workers were caught unawares as they came to office to see that the gate had been locked.

The Punch correspondent, who was at the scene about 8.30am, observed that the workers were stranded while some of them openly expressed concern because they were not sure of the security of their jobs.

It was gathered that no fewer than 50 workers were affected by the exercise.

Some of the punctual workers told The Punch correspondent that the HOS had appealed to the workers many time to always be punctual to work.

One of them, who pleaded not to be named, said, "It is surprising that the workers did not heed the advice. The directive was carried out on Monday in some other ministries whose offices were not in the complex. Although the civil servants in the Governor's Office complex were not notified that such measure"

Some of the workers, who came late and spoke to The Punch correspondent on condition of anonymity, said they had some challenges on their ways.

They said they had received several warnings from the HOS, adding that they should be forgiven. Many of them promised that they would not come late to the office again.

A corps member, who declined to mention his name, said he was surprised to be locked out as he came to make some documentations, adding that visitors to the complex should have been spared.

Efforts by our correspondent to get Omar's response was unsuccessful as a worker in her office told our correspondent that the HOS had decided not to comment on the issue.

But a source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the HOS used the measure to compel the workers to be punctual to work.

She, however, said she was not sure whether there would be punitive measures against the late-coming workers.