Teachers in Plateau on Friday in Jos staged a protest rally over alleged non-payment of their seven months salaries by the state government.

The state government says the delay is due to the on-going bio-metric data capturing of the teachers.

An official of the government, Mr Nanle Dashe, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the bio-metric programme was part of government’s routine checks to weed out ghost and unqualified teachers in its pay roll.

Teachers in Plateau on Friday in Jos staged a protest rally over alleged non-payment of their seven months salaries by the state government.

The state government says the delay is due to the on-going bio-metric data capturing of the teachers.

An official of the government, Mr Nanle Dashe, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the bio-metric programme was part of government’s routine checks to weed out ghost and unqualified teachers in its pay roll.

“All those affected shall be paid their monies as soon as the exercise is completed, ” he said.

The teachers carried various placards and marched round the former Jos South Local Government Secretariat.

The protesters, through their spokesman, Mr Taddy Pam, called on the government to pay the accrued salary arrears without further delay “to save us from dying “.

“We can’t continue to wait for salaries while the bio-metric capturing lasted because our families are going hungrier by the day.

“In fact, it’s impossible for us to discharge our responsibilities as teachers on empty stomach,” the spokesman said.

He said the teachers would stop going to classrooms if the state government failed to pay them between now and the end of the month.

“Our children have been sent out of school because we could not pay their fees; is it food or fees we should face as parents,” Pam said.

He called on the government to begin payment while the exercise was going on, to enable them to give their maximum input as teachers and molders of future leaders.

“We have even written to the Speaker of the House of Assembly to help us intervene in this injustice being meted to us by our own employer, ” Pam said. (NAN)

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Plateau: Teachers Protest Over Non-Payment Of 7 Months Salaries