By Joseph Kingston, Calabar



Incessant electricity outage and refusal of authorities of the Cross River State Government House to put on the alternative power generating unit to help civil servants in their official duties have caused both civil servants and political appointees to abandon their offices in what one of them described as ‘silent protest.’

The sit-at-home protest, Orient Daily gathered, commenced on Monday to drive home the frustration of those working in the premises of the Governor’s Office and to register the displeasure of Cross River people to the degrading treatment meted out on the Deputy Governor by those who have the ears of Governor Ben Ayade.

A civil servant, who preferred not to be named, said “even when the deputy governor is in the office, if the Chief of Staff, who does not come to the office once the governor is not around, does not give an order for the generator to be put on, we will not have light in the office. As I am talking to you now, important letters that should be produced are still lying idle because there is no light to do so.

“How do you go to the office and all you do is just sit idle or sleep throughout the day. Because apart from the office being hot, which makes it uncomfortable to operate, machines are not working because of lack of light.”

A senior staff in the governor’s office, who simply gave his name as Agbor, said: “You can see how the governor’s office has been turned into a ghost environment because the governor is not in town. This was not the case when Donald Duke and Liyel Imoke were in power. I have never seen this kind of situation where the governor’s office will not have light even when the deputy governor is in the office.”

Agbor said since the present administration took over in the state, “Light in the governor’s office has become an essential commodity. Workers in the office are embarking on a silent protest to reverse the situation.”

“There is nothing anybody can do as we cannot work in an environment where one will be sweating profusely in a place which should ordinarily be a place of comfort. Besides, workers here are used to doing their work whether or not the governor is in the office because they are paid to work, but in a situation where you don’t have light to type, print or process documents, why do you even pay transport fare to the office?”

Checks by Orient Daily also indicated that political appointees have equally deserted their offices due to the severity of the heat. Most of them were alleged to have relocated to their villages pending when the governor would return to the state.

A special adviser, who pleaded that his name be shielded said; “since the governor is not in town, what are we going to do there? Yes, we are his appointees and once he is not in the state, nothing goes well and we cannot stay in the office without light.”Efforts to contact the chief of staff over the development met brick walls as his two telephone lines were switched off.

Investigations, however, revealed that the Government House has two giant generators which are always switched on whenever Governor Ben Ayade is in his office and occasionally when the deputy is around, a situation, workers saw as ‘unacceptable.”

https://orientdailynews.com.ng/news/workers-desert-criver-govt-house/

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