STREET sweepers and gardeners working for the Cross River State government held the secretary to the state government hostage for several hours yesterday over the fact that they have not been paid for the last seven months. 

In a scene reminiscent of the recent anger shown by Air France staff against their serious manager, the workers numbering about 500, detained the secretary Martina Agbor, at the Calabar Urban Development Authority offices. She had gone there to take inventory of the authority’s vehicles and other facilities and did not bargain on being confronted by the angry staff. 

Ms Agbor arrived at the sanitation office located on Ibrahim Babangida Way in Calabar, the state capital and went straight to meet with the authority's executive secretary Joemary Ekeng Ita. She had gone there to get details of the capacity of the authority to clean up the state capital, which in recent times had been taken over by refuse dumps.

However, the workers quickly mobilised when they saw she had arrived and waited patiently while she was shown round the premises. After the inspection, as Ms Agbor was about to leave, the angry workers who allegedly had not been paid their N5,000 (£16.50) allowances for seven months, surrounded her, demanding their accumulated pay. 

They threatened that if they were not paid, she would not be allowed leave the premises. Surrounded by the angry workers, Ms Agbor was unable to leave and ended up being detained in her car until a detachment of the police came to whisk her away from the premises. 

Ms Agbor said: “They are saying that government owes them and I ask, owe you, how?  Look at the books, they have over 200 workers and yet the town is still dirty. 

"What do we owe them for? Who are those that have been working? That was what brought me here.” 

She added that the government did not owe the workers but the contractors handling the evacuation of refuse in the state capital. Calabar used to be the cleanest city in Nigeria but of late, it losing its status as refuse piles can be noticed around the metropolis lately. 

Yesterday, angry protesters ripped the shirts off Air France executives after the company revealed plans to cut thousands of jobs during a meeting near Paris. Hundreds of employees protested peacefully outside the meeting, but a small group attacked the executives, and left them half dressed.