CITY NEWS FCTA shuts 2 illegal schools AUMTCO workers protest, begin strike over unpaid salaries

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), yesterday, shut two illegal nursery and primary schools at Durumi 3 in Gaduwa area of Abuja.

The operation was led by the acting Secretary of Education Secretariat, Mrs Naomi Biki, who said that the two schools were operating below acceptable standards. She pointed out that one of the schools was shut two years ago but the owner reopened it without meeting the standards.

Biki urged to enroll their parents not children in substandard schools.

City News gathered that 536 illegal and substandard schools in the territory have been identified for closure by the secretariat. and illegal Hundreds of workers at the Abuja Urban Mass Transport Company (AUMTCO), under the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE), yesterday, locked the entrance to the company located along Kubwa road.

The workers, who were not paid their salaries for five months, carried placards bearing various inscriptions and stormed the company as early as 8:00a.m., demanding for immediate payment of their salaries.

The workers said that the protest would go on for two days, after which they would start an indefinite strike, if the management of the company failed to pay them.

Policemen were deployed to the place to prevent the protest from degenerating into a major crisis.

The Secretary of AUPCTRE, FCT, Comrade Sikiru Waheed, who addressed the workers, said that they were protesting against not paying their salaries.

He said: “We are here protesting against the lack of payment of salaries of workers in Abuja urban mass transport. The workers are being owed five months arrears of salaries by the company.”