Midwives and Community Extension Workers under Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), Maternal Child Health Care (MCH), in Kaduna State, have staged a peaceful demonstration over non-payment of 35 months allowances by the state and local governments Councils.

According to them, since their engagement in 2012 till date, they had not received any payment.

Leader of the group, Habiba Suleiman, who led the protest to the Kaduna State Nigerian Union of Journalists Secretariat, said they had not received any payment since their engagement in 2012, adding that they were stopped from working.

She explained that only the federal government paid them allowances, while the state and Local government were yet to pay.

According to her, “We are engaged by the Federal, states and Local government areas. Our engagement letters stated that Federal, state and local government are to pay us our allowances. When we started, it’s only Federal government that is giving us allowances.

“The state and local government have not given us anything. This is 35 months and the third year. We started working September 2012 till date,” she said.

They called on the state governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, to as a matter of urgency, intervene and get their allowances paid to them accordingly.

The women were holding Placards with inscription such as “Save! Save!! Save!!! Maternal and Child Mortality and Morbidity,” “We demand for the payment of our arrears,” and “We demand that all our outstanding allowances should be paid,” among others.

The women were also at the government house earlier where they alleged that the permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, who received them said they were still processing their allowances.

The leader said they sensed a foul play with the way their issue was being handled by the Ministry saying, “we were surprised when the Ministry only agreed to pay us from 2014-2015, while we have been working since 2012. So what happened to our two years arrears?”, they lamented.