Protesting primary school teachers and pupils in Makurdi, Benue State, were yesterday dispersed with teargas.
The teachers, as early as 7:30am, took to the streets to protest what they described as the state government’s inability to pay their minimum wage which was expected to have taken effect from August.
Our correspondent reports that primary school pupils also took part in the protest as they blocked the road to disrupt traffic, and chanted: “No school, no road”.
It was gathered that shortly after the pupils numbering over 500 blocked the road, the police arrived the scene throwing canisters to disperse the crowd.
The state chapter of Nigeria Union of Teachers’ (NUT) had said last week that it would embark on another indefinite strike if the state government failed to pay primary school teachers’ salaries in one week.
Primary school teachers in the state had earlier called off a two-month-old strike in June this year after they reached an agreement with the state government to implement the national minimum wage being enjoyed by their counterparts in secondary schools.
State chairman of NUT, Godwin Anya, had told NE that the union’s apex body wrote to the state government to implement the agreement by paying his members, salaries within one week, but that it failed to meet the demand, so the leadership of the union would report back to the national body for further directives.
The Benue State government had earlier reiterated its commitment to begin the payment of minimum wage to primary school teachers in the state in August, but failed to redeem the pledge.
When contacted, the state Police Commissioner, Adams Audu, said it was not right for the teachers to block roads in protest for their salaries when according to him, they could have employed the dialogue approach.
“It doesn’t make sense for teachers to start burning tyres on the roads when they could simply dialogue,” he said. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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