By Daniel Agbor
Respite has continued to elude the workers at the Obudu Mountain Resort after several years of their redeployment as arrears of their salaries and leave grant now looks at the skewed legal quotation of “justice delayed, is justice denied”. While they may not have been the reason for the sudden low patronage at the Mountain Resort, their predicaments has left very little to be desired in terms of welfare.
A historical insight of the situation has it that at the twilight of Sen. Ben Ayade administration, the OMR had deteriorated so low and so bad that tourist had to cut short their holiday due to the dehumanizing conditions they were faced with. This was further triggered by the partial or total neglect of the resort by government as agents of government were more interested in the funds generated than the sustainability of the resort.
Information at our disposal has it that the appointees of the governor were leveraging on their appointment to use facilities at the resort without payment and also drawing from there whatever accrued as proceeds. The matter escalated so high and so badly that workers who were laying the golden egg were total neglected as well thus giving room for accumulation of salary arrears, leave grant and other allowances.
The situation lingered longer than expected with the Governor, Sen. Ben Ayade still manning proceedings of the Tourism Ministry. However, there was a slight relief by the appointment of Mr. Eric Anderson as Commissioner of Tourism in the state.
He embarked on damaged control but the damage was too big and too herculean to be control. So, when the matter got out of hand, attempts were made to salvage the situation which saw to the attempt by Government to lease out the resort to a consortium called Zedici.
This period was marked the MOU era as the governor was always globetrotting from one end to the other to sign MOUs. The administration was branded MOU government.
And so, it was not surprising when an MOU was cited to have emanated from the coffers of government handing over the resort to Zedici. Interestingly, the aspect that concerns workers salary according to Zedici was not part of the policy document. The whole charade was shrouded in deception and sundry falsification. Zedici disclaimed liabilities and wanted to force the workers out after so many months of holding brief for them as Zedici suddenly interested in the resort after eighteen months or so from the purported agreement with government.
According to the media report then, the revelation and hidden truths revealed by the report especially the policy document threw Ayade’s administration in crisis. An attempt for damaged control further made the situation messier. The continuous denial by government ever involving in the signing of the MOU further put the workers and the consortium on an edge.
The governor who stepped in later when the rift was getting out of hand dismissed the claims by Zedici and terminated their pre-contract agreement of the basis of un-seriousness. The workers were promised redeployment but with the damaged already done, it was important to remedy the already terrible yet nothing has been done.
Though their redeployment was effected but the outstanding salary arrears and leave grant were not paid. Crystal Express visited the Resort and confirmed from some of the workers who do not want their names in print.
From the documents made available to us, the Government of Cross River State under the leadership of HE Sir Ben Ayade, the salary arrears and leave grants totals, Four Hundred and Ninety Seven Million, Four Hundred and Fifty Eight Thousand, Nine Hundred and Forty Nine Naira Twenty Two Kobo (#497,458,949.22). The document captures the terminal benefit from July, 2014 to February, 2019 for 182 staff.
To this end, a notice to commence litigation from Marc Enamhe & Co, solicitor to the staff under the auspices of National Union of Hotel and Personal Services Workers (NUHPSW), Obudu Mountain Resort Branch under the leadership of Comrade Johnson Akon and the Secretary Hotel and Personal Services Senior Staff Association (HAPSSSA) was served on the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the state. Information at our disposal reveals the office of the Attorney General received notice of this on the 1st of July, 2020.
Grapevine information has it that the State Government made efforts to contact Zedici to ascertain the claims but met a serious brick wall as the said consortium alleged that all information regarding their operations in the Resort were stored in their computers that had all crashed and they do not have any hard copy available.
The State Government further consulted a consulting firm according to our source but the figures presented was very alarming, far higher than what was presented to Government by the workers through their legal team.
When Crystal Express contacted the Hon. Commissioner for Tourism, Mr. Eric Anderson under whose ministry the Resort falls under and who is no stranger to all the events and happenings in the Resort, he initially said he was attending the Leboku Festival in Ugep and promised to respond to every issue. Sadly, Mr. Eric Anderson who promised to call back did not and all efforts to reach have proved abortive as all calls to him have gone unanswered.
Recently, the Ministry have been embroiled with series of issues especially nonpayment of artists, vendors, tour guides, carnival marshalls and other stakeholders who took part in the last Carnival in 2019. This is 11 months down the line and nothing is forthcoming. Adding this to the already existing Obudu Mountain Resort saga could have possibly serve as the reason why the Honourable Commissioner for Tourism suddenly developed cold feet just at the nick of time.
The case is however not applicable to his ministry alone as even the State Government is found to be dancing in muddy waters in regards to arrears of pension and gratuities. Very recently, the state owned broadcasting outfit, Cross River Broadcasting Corporation (CRBC) have followed suit owing workers up to 6 months salaries as at August this year.
Meanwhile, local government pensioners took the streets of Calabar earlier this morning (November, 2020), blocking the Murtala Mohammed Highway, over nonpayment of pension arrears.
