Clamour for unpaid salaries:

Bakassi teachers take delegate hostage

Some disgruntled teachers of schools in the Bakassi peninsula on Wednesday 26 July 2017, stormed the office of the regional delegate of secondary education to demand the payment of arrears of their salaries. The irate workers took the regional delegate, ApahHor Augustine and his collaborators hostage in their office, promising to free them only upon the payment of their accrued salaries.

                According to reports, the policemen guarding the delegation premises where overwhelmed by the clamouring teachers, warranting the delegate to call for reinforcement from the security hierarchy.

                The protesting teachers painted a bleak picture of their lot, saying they are made to work under har4sh conditions in Bakassi that lacks neither basic food commodities nor good housing and security.

                “We have been working in Bakassi for the past two months under perilous conditions, mouldingfuture leaders of Cameroon, yet we are abandoned to ourselves,” lamented one of the teachers, who noted that their total salary bill can come up to about FCFA 80 million.

                The teachers wondered why the delegate should be enjoying the amenities in his comfortable office and think that they should continue to go unpaid though working in the nisqyute-infested Bakass peninsula which is the target of sea pirates.

                Some of the teachers who had just finished marking the GCE said their situation is compounded by the fact that even the special bonus for marketing provided by president Biya has not been paid them.