IT WAS drama on Thursday morning at the Federal Ministry of Works headquarters in Mabushi, Abuja as angry workers locked Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, inside his office in Abuja for several hours as they also switched of power supply in the ministry.
A source, who is a senior staff of theLock in ministry, told National Record that the minister, who resumed very early to his office at the headquarters locked out several workers, including senior, intermediate and junior officers on the ground that they were late to work.
However, the union leaders in the ministry resolved to seal of the ministry thereby blocking all entrances and exits, an action that prevented the minister from leaving his office.
Our source stated that the workers were angry essentially because of the challenges majority of them face in commuting to the office especially from satellite towns.
Workers were also said to have progressively been under strain due to what they said is the minister’s high-handedness since his assumption of office.
He is alleged to have stopped engineers and directors from doing their work, and has been breaking public service rules by bringing in consultants to run the affairs of the ministry.
According to our source, who is a deputy director, Umahi had refused to grant audience to union leaders to express their concerns on his actions.
Efforts by National Record to get the ministry to respond to the situation proved abortive as the respective officers were not reachable.
The minister later got reprieve at about 3pm after he reportedly came down to apologise to the workers.
