The affected staff also accused Umahi of violating public service regulations by interfering with the work of engineers and directors and hiring consultants to manage the ministry’s operations.
The Minister of Works, Senator Dave Umahi, was earlier locked in his office by angry staff of the ministry.
According to reports, the Minister had Thursday morning, barred staff, who reported late to work from accessing the building.
A Union representative in the Ministry, Williams Kudi, told newsmen that the affected staff explained that their late arrival to work was due to the fact that they lived far from the workplace but the Minister turned a deaf ear.
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Angered by this, the affected workers staged a protest and shut the gate to the building as they chanted “He must go!”, “Umahi must go!”, and “Solidarity forever!”.
They alleged that Umahi, a former member of the 10th Assembly, “stopped engineers and directors from doing their work, and has been breaking public service rules since his appointment, by bringing in consultants to run the affairs of the ministry.”
The gate was later unlocked but, the aggrieved employees refused to go into the building, and chose to occupy the entrance gate instead, preventing entry and exit to the building, and also preventing the minister from leaving the office until the Minister appeared before them.
