Secretary to Cross River State Government held hostage by road sweepers

The Secretary to Cross River State Government Mrs Martina Agbor, was yesterday held hostage by street sweepers and gardeners at the Calabar Urban Development Authority, CUDA, when she went there to take inventory of the Authority’s vehicles and other facilities.

It was gathered that Mrs Agbor arrived the sanitation office located on Ibrahim Babangida Way in the state capital, and went straight to meet with the Executive Secretary, Mr. Joemary Ekeng Ita.

She was there to get details of the capacity of the authority to clean up the state capital which in recent times had been taken over by refuse dumps.


According to the source, workers in the agency, numbering about 500, on noticing the SSG’s presence, mobilised and waited patiently while she was shown round the premises.

After the inspection, as she was about to leave, the angry workers who allegedly had not been paid their N5,000 allowances for seven months, surrounded her demanding for their accumulated allowances, or she would not leave the premisis.

She was held up in her car until a detachment of the Police came to take her out of the premises.

Reacting on the incident, the SSG said the government was not owing the workers, but the contractors handling the evacuation of refuse in the state capital.

“They are saying that government owes them and I ask, owe you, how? Look at the books, they have over 200 workers and yet the town is still dirty. What do we owe them for? Who are those that have been working? That was what brought me here,” she said.