Striking FCTA Workers Threaten to Shut down Abuja Cemeteries

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

Angry workers of Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) have threatened to shut down all public cemeteries in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).The threat followed the locking up of Gudu cemetery on Wednesday before the workers rescinded their stance after they were pressured by the administration and the Presidency to relax the threat.

Two days ago, the workers embarked on an indefinite strike over the failure of the FCT Administration to implement a new salary structure for them.

The Chairman of Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE) in AEPB, Comrade Muktar Bala, threatened that although the unions mutually agreed to reopen the cemeteries, they would not hesitate to shut it down again, including all other operational systems of the board.

He lamented that members of the Union were made to handle the burial of abandoned corpses, a development that makes them prone to health hazard.

He said the cemeteries would be shut again should government renege on the agreement with the national body.

“People think it is only waste management that we do. They don’t know that even unclaimed corpses in hospitals are taken care of by us.

“These dead bodies that have over stayed in the hospital for three to four years, we take care of them, without knowing what killed them,” Bala said.

He said based on the decision taken on Wednesday night by the joint unions of AEPB, they resolved to open the cemetery by 9am yesterday due to calls from the Presidency.