Very angry looking PTA teachers stormed the premises of the Anambra State House of Assemble yesterday, 7th June 2022, to protest their dismissal by the Prof Charles Chukwuma Soludo led administration.
The dismissed teachers who number in their hundreds and chanting, “All we are saying give us our job” carried placards with different inscriptions including: “Our Soludo be our solution”, “We voted for continuity; don’t forsake us our dear governor” and “We have worked for many years as PTA teachers without pay.”
The teachers who originally wanted to lead their peaceful protest into the Assembly complex but were denied entrance by the security details, stood at the gate where they sang and displayed their placards attracting passersby.
According to the protesting teachers, they were hired as PTA teachers by the past administration of Governor Willie Mmaduabuchukwu Obiano who gave them the assurance that their employment would fully regularized. They have worked for three solid years without payment but what has kept them going those three years was the hope that when their engagement would eventually be regularized they would be paid their full salaries with the accrued benefits. It was therefore a great shock to them when they received the news that they have been sacked by the new administration.
They were at the Assembly therefore to appeal to the Hon. Members to prevail upon Governor Soludo’s Administration, especially the Hon. Commissioner for Education, Prof. Ngozi – Chuma Udeh not just to restore them to their former status as PTA teachers but to give them full employment as well pay the salaries owed them these three years.
The teachers maintained that it was unjust to hire somebody with family and children to work for you without pay for three good years. Where do you expect the person to get what he would feed his children with from, the teachers queried? The height of the injustice for the teachers however, was to say that the unpaid workers had been dismissed.
They therefore appeal to the Hon. Members, especially the Speaker of Anambra State House of Assembly; Rt. Hon. Uche Okafor to come to their rescue and save them and their families from the impending hunger and hardship that the dismissal engender.
Rt. Hon. Okafor who met the protesters at the gate of the Assembly’ complex in the company of other Hon., Members, thanked them for not taking laws into their hands and for choosing the most civic and democratic means to lay their complaint before the government and seek redress for their grievances. He assured them of the Assembly’s speedy intervention on the matter and promised that they would soon hear from the Assembly.
