There was pandemonium, yesterday, when soldiers serving in the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON), Kaduna, assaulted and arrested civilian staff members of the Corporation, who staged a peaceful protest against non-payment of their allowances and other emoluments.
The soldiers, who were drafted by the management to prevent protest within the facility, pushed the protesters, who assembled at about 8:00a.m, at the Kakuri factory of the Corporation from the gate, to the nearby Monday Market.
In the process, the soldiers who were armed to the tooth, assaulted one of the protesters, who was using his mobile phone to record the scene, while another protester, identified simply as Bala, a civilian security man in the factory, was also arrested and taken into custody by the armed soldiers.
Speaking to newsmen, the staff members, who also highlighted lack of enrollment into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system(IPPIS), said they were suffering in their service to Nigeria through DICON.
They, therefore, demanded immediate payment of their full promotion arrears for 2020, 2021, and 2022, and their Peculiar Allowance to cushion the removal of fuel subsidy, among other demands.
They said: “We are only here to let the management and the Federal Government know how we are being treated as civilian staff of DICON.
“This is because we discovered that all agencies under the Ministry of Defence have been enrolled into IPPIS, only DICON staff have not been captured. But you can see how our member was beaten and another taken into custody by soldiers.”
The protesters also called on the Federal Government to intervene by directing the management of DICON to respond to their demands and stop victimising staff members, who voice their concerns regarding the mistreatment and denial of their rights.
When contacted, the DICON Public Relations Officer, Musa Yakubu, responded via a text message, by simply saying: “Sorry Sir, I’m not on ground, thank you.”
But The Guardian learnt that Monday’s protest by the civilian staff of DICON was the second of a similar attempt to press home their demand for payment of their six months Peculiar Allowance, minimum wage arrears since 2019, and promotion arrears for 2020, 2021 and 2022.
