Emmanuel Thomas
July 3, 2015 – Members of the Federal Task Force on Subsidy Reinvestment Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) today protested the decision of the Lagos State Government to demolish their headquarters at the old Lagos tollgate and in the process obliterating their only source of hope.
The protesters stormed the Lagos State House of Assembly, some fully kitted in their uniforms, letters of employment and Staff ID cards, brandishing several placards with messages such as “Exploitation! exploitation!! Exploitation!!! uniform N37,500, form N50,000, polo and cap N4,000”, among others, demanded payment of all their salaries in the last three years and retention of their jobs.
They argued that before the demolition, either the state government or the Federal Government ought to have called them to a meeting to keep them abreast of the next development and the status of their employment.
They said they that are about 51,000 and have worked for years and that some lost their lives in the process of working for the agency.
They listed those who extorted them as National Coordinator/Commandant of the agency, Alhaji Abdulrasaq Rafiu, PDP chieftain and Empowerment coordinator, Chief Olabode George, Senator Ogunlewe, Federal Task Force Chieftain, Mr. Da- Silva, Deputy National Coordinator of the Federal Task Force, Mrs. Oluremi Adeniji among others.
One of the protesters, Mr. Nicholas Akam who presented a letter confirming his appointment since January 13, 2015 as an Intelligent Officer said he was not paid since he was employed with a salary of N150,000 per month. He said they need the training allowance government has paid, their salary arrears and their jobs.
Speaking for his colleagues, Spokesperson for SURE-P Federal Taskforce, Officer Ikon Ikwuagwu said they marched on the Lagos State House of Assembly to demand for their rights.
“ We are agitation for our rights, we are being dehumanized, we have been promised employment by the Federal Government as you can rightfully see in the letters of appointment, we can also give you the ID cards as you can see, it is official as you can see. In the cause of this training many women lost their pregnancy, in the cause of this training, many people died, in the cost of this training, we lost all the jobs we were managing with in the first instance because we felt we had more prospect with the Federal Government because we believe it is a federal job.
“They said wrote on the form, not for sale under the guise of bringing us in, but when we get in they began to screen us, they began to ask us to pay. Because of our desperation for the federal jobs we began to pay. We bought the uniform N32, 500, some us paid for form N30, 000, some paid N50,000, I paid N150,000, my sister paid N130,000. We paid for many things
“That is not what we are here for. What we are saying is that we are the pivot of the nation, the youths are the pivot of the nation, therefore why should we be defrauded, why should the FG allow their logo, their properties to be used to defraud the youths of this nation. What we call terrorism starts this way. For three years we have been working, we have been waking up by 4am and going to the headquarters and now they want to dump us.
“We saw it in the newspapers, in Nigerian Tribune that the FG approved it and because of it we believed that the job is real and now we believed we have been duped since this place has been demolished.
“We are more than 51,000 recruited since three years. So there is no way they can dump this people without any compensation even if they want to stop this job. We have been coming here in the last three years. So we need our jobs, we are well coordinated, we are well organised, because many of us out of desperation may be forced to do something because a hungry man is an angry man”, he said.
The members protested even as the Lagos State PDP has said that the Federal Government paid the Lagos State Government under the Babatunde Fashola administration a total sum of N68 billion under the SURE-P arrangement.
Efforts to speak to all those listed to have extorted them was not successful. We called Chief Olabode George his phone rang severally but he refused to pick his calls. Rasaq Rafiu could not be reached since he was said to be out of reach.
We also called Ogunlewe for reaction but he failed to pick his call at the time of filing this report.
Addressing the protesters, the Speaker, Hon. Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa, while acknowledging that their prayers were quite straight- forward, assured that the House would communicate them to the state governor, Mr Ambode, who would them relate them to Mr President for solution.
The speaker, who was represented by the Majority Leader, Hon. Sanai Agunbiade, assured that the House would do this because of his belief and in line with the stated objective that as representative of the people, it owed it a duty to ensure protection of all Lagosians as it considered that any injustice done to an individual was injustice done to all.
