Retrenched NPA ex-employees barricade office

More than 100 former employees of the Nigerian Ports Authority, sacked in 1991, barricaded the administrative building of the Port Harcourt office of the authority on Monday.
The former employees said they were protesting against the non-payment of their entitlements.
The protesters prevented serving employees of the authority, who reported to work as early as 8a.m, from entering their offices.
Their spokesman, Mr. Jonathan Okonwo, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Port Harcourt that 2,768 employees of the authority were retrenchment in 1991.
He said the management of the authority had refused to obey a Supreme Court ruling which directed it to pay the retrenched employees their entitlements and benefits.
“We are here today to demonstrate against nonpayment of our entitlements according to the Supreme Court judgment of 1991.
“The judgment said we should be paid our entitlements with effect from January 1991 to date which include our gratuity, our redundancy benefits, and our pensions.
“Nationwide, we are about 2768 persons. Management of NPA have not been showing concerns over this payment because recently a payment of N50,000 for a period of 21 years was given to us , so we rejected it outrightly,” he said.
Okonwo said previous dialogue with the management of the NPA failed to yield any result.
The Senior Manager, Public Affairs, Rivers Port Complex, Port Harcourt, Mrs. Barbara Nche-Achukwu, told NAN that management of the authority was meeting in Lagos to look into the issues raised by the retrenched staff.
“The pensioners, 1991 pensioners, they rose up this morning and blocked the entrance to the administrative block.
“Well, the issue is that they are talking about their pay. They’ve been retrenched since 1991. So, there is an issue and management is looking into it. As I am talking to you, the management is meeting in Lagos, discussing the issue. They’ve met earlier.
“The operational section is on. As I am talking to you we are working, the port is busy, but the administrative section where they blocked, we have skeletal services going on there. For people that came earlier, they were able to make it into the port.
“But people that came much later, they couldn’t go in because there were palm fronds which they used to block the entrance to the administrative block. So, that is what is happening as at now,” she said.
Nche-Achukwu said the port manager was in touch with the retrenched workers and the management of the Authority in Lagos to find a solution to the problem.