Workers and pensioners in Oyo State, under the umbrella of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), and Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) have continued their protest, causing the shutdown of the State Secretariat at Agodi, Ibadan.

Under the watch of labour leaders, protesters stormed the secretariat, blocking its entrance and disrupting government activities. Some civil servants were beaten and locked in their offices, further intensifying the chaos greeting the alleged government’s failure to remit money deducted from salaries of the workers to appropriate quarters, including cooperative societies.

Labour leaders parked their cars to block the gates, just as they discouraged workers from going into the secretariat to resume the day’s work. Some workers narrowly had access to the premises of the secretariat with their legs from the gate at Fire Service Headquarters, close to Agodi Gardens.

The protesters are demanding among others, payment of salary deductions, palliatives for workers, upward review of pension allowances, payment of leave bonuses, gratuities for retirees, and promotion letters for the years 2021 and 2022.

A civil servant, Dare Olaniyan, who injured by the protesters said: “I came inside secretariat premisses to pick my belongings, in the office. All attempts to explain this to the protesters fell on deaf ears, as they launched an attack on me, for no just cause. But rather than settle the issue amicably, the NLC members decided to go physical, engaging me and others with me in a fight.”

Executive Assistant to the Governor on Security, Mr. Sunday Odukoya, however, intervened to put a stop to the violence, saying the beating civil servants in the name of protest was against the law.

Amid appeals for an end to the siege, the protesters vowed to continue blocking the secretariat until Governor Seyi Makinde personally address their grievances.