Staff of Kwara State Water Corporation, Ilorin, yesterday protested the non-payment of their four months salaries.

It was gathered that the staff are being owed July to October salaries.

The workers are also protesting what they called the non-remittance of ten months co-operative deductions, amounting to about N70 million, among others.

The protesters who gathered under the umbrella of the state branch of Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE), blocked the entrance of the corporation along state Library Ilorin while the protest lasted.

They carried placards with inscriptions such as "pay us our salary arrears", "We are not fools" Give us our rights", "No pay no work".

Speaking with journalists, AUPCTRE chairman, Kwara State Water Corporation branch, Comrade Murtala, said the union wrote series of letters to the management and the government, but nothing was done about the situation.
He said the management's attitude forced the workers numbering about 600 to embark on protest.
He added that they would not return to work until their demands were met.

Also, the state secretary of AUPCTRE, Comrade Saliu Sulyman, lamented that the management and government were not sensitive to the workers' plight.

"We have written series of letters to the management and government without any positive response and nobody is even negotiating with us. Instead, the governor went on air to say the state government is not owing anybody", he said. Sulyman added that the union gave the state government a 14 day ultimatum which expired on Monday.

He lamented that the non-payment of salaries had caused the workers untold hardship.

"We have lost six of our workers and some are receiving treatment in the hospital. Many workers were trekking to work, because they could no longer afford fares. Some have even been sent out of their homes due to non payment of rent", he said.

When contacted, the state government said it is working with management of the corporation to resolve the issue.

Governor Abdulfattah Ahmed, who spoke through his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communication, Dr. Muideen Akorede, also noted that the corporation was a revenue generation agency and was expected to pay its worker's salaries.

"Nonetheless, we call on the protesters to go about their work as government is liaising with their management to see how their salaries would be paid. Drop in allocation is the cause of unpaid salaries and that is why the government is focusing on agencies that are not generating revenues," Akorede said.