Over 300 Special Assistants appointed by the Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade are reportedly stranded in Calabar, the state capital following the failure of the state Government to pay their monthly salaries or provide office accommodation for them to carry out their duties.
According to Vanguard, the affected aides are among the last set of appointees engaged by the governor last December and in February this year as part of his plans to expand his government and bring on board more youths.
This category of appointees were appointed to join an over bloated cabinet which had over one thousand appointees already. Some of the affected officials who spoke to the reporter said they spent over six weeks on their documentation in the Office of the Secretary to the State Government but have been waiting in vain for allocation of office space as well as salaries and other allowances to assist them rent a decent apartment.
Some of them who said they traveled to Calabar from the northern part of the state, lamented that they are current squatting with their friends, hoping that the Governor approves funds for payment of their salaries. Some said they have been turned to beggars in Calabar as they have no cash on them to attend to their pressing needs.
The report quoted one of the appointees as saying “I came all the way from Ogoja to do my documentation and the process took me over six weeks to complete. I have nowhere to stay in Calabar and each time I came, I squat with a friend who was kind enough to offer me a space in his single room. When our names were finally confirmed as SAs, I thought my problems were over only to realise that after three months, there is no accommodation for us, no office space and no salary.”
Another aggrieved official said “After going through a rigorous documentation process, we felt that we will quickly settle down to our duties but to our greatest dismay, about three months after our recruitment, the government seems to have forgotten that we were recruited.
“Whereas some of the aides of the government are treated as first-class aides, have some sort of office accommodation and are regularly paid, a greater majority of us particularly the latest set of aides has very sad stories to tell as far as welfare is concerned.”
