The Cross River State Government is yet to pay the salaries of some 93 persons she employed to teach science subjects in the state-owned Nursing Schools in Calabar, Itigidi, Ogoja and Obudu, investigation carried out by www.calitown.com has revealed.
Our investigations show that on August 1, 2023, the said teachers were offered employment via letters signed by Isang I. Ofem, Director of Administration in the CRS Civil Service Commission. Their letters of appointment followed suit, dated August 16, 2023, signed by Elizabeth E. Etim, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Establishment and Payroll.
The letters of appointment stated that their employment was “…approved with effect from 29th July, 2023, on a salary scale of N1,000,558,28, per anum on Salary Grade Level 08/2” and further requested to report to the Ministry of Health, Calabar, for duty deployment.
While the employees have all done as directed by the letters to them, the employer appears not to have kept to her own part of the bargain. “We’ve been working for the Cross River State Government as science lecturers at the various Colleges of Nursing Sciences for over 10 months now without salaries.”
“Some of us were posted far, to distant locations where we had no acquaintances ab initio. We quit our previous jobs, got new apartments and relocated even when this was never in our favour. As I speak, my rent is due, money I borrowed to pay the rent, hoping I will pay back from my salary, is also due. I don’t have the resources to pay these money and I am in a dilemma”, one of the affected staff told us.
“We’ve put in great efforts towards the educational development of our state and we held nothing back in the last ten months, yet the Cross River State Government does not appear to care about the pains we are going through”, another affected employee said.
Government sources who have elected to remain anonymous, when contacted, informed us that the science teachers may have become enmeshed in the rancorous employment saga currently being untangled in the state. Pressed to know why no form of written explanation about their plight is available, or whether the state governor is aware of their plight, our source in Government House, Calabar, referred us to higher government authorities, who offered no comments when pressed for comments.
“We can only appeal to our state governor, who may have no knowledge of our plight, to help us, so that we will not die. It is not easy to survive with your family for ten months without a salary or the hope of any salary soon”, one other affected employee told us.
