Protest Stall Business

By INNOCENT OKOH

Aggrieved members of Medical and Health Workers Union, University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) halted banking activities at the First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Ugbowo branch in the early hours of Thursday.

The protesting unionists led by the branch secretary Comrade Afuwah Benson, expressed their grievances on the refusal of the bank branch to pay their monetisation arreas approved by the federal government weeks ago.

Speaking to Nigerian observer, Comrade Benson retorted the union’s displeasure in the manner at which the Bank is treating their issue with levity, saying that their issue has been pending since two weeks.

Answering questions from Nigerian observer, a senior employee of the bank who pleaded anonymity said that the issue at hand is an e-payment irregularity and that when the list of the affected staff of the hospital came in from Abuja, the branch management discovered some typographic errors in the list, the affected staff.

Prior to this discovery the list was returned for a substantive corrections and presently, the corrected list is still being expected to effect swift payments of the workers.

It took the effort and appeal of the divisional police officer of the Ugbowo police division to covince the aggrieve union members to leave the bank premises, promising them that the division shall ensure appropriate action is taken to enforce the swift payment of their arrears.