ENDSARS Protest: Taraba Commissioner Resumes Work Under Tree
BY AMEH IDUJAGI, JALINGO – The new Commissioner of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation in Taraba State, Mr. Jethro Yakubu, on Wednesday resumed work under a tree, following the inability of government to renovate several ministries and parastatals destroyed as a result of the #endsars protest six months ago.
The Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr Jibrin Na Wukari, who handed over the affairs of the Ministry to the new commissioner said that the staff of the ministry have been working under the tree for nearly six months now, following the vandalization of the office during the EndSARS protest in October last year.
He lamented that for a ministry that is saddled with the responsibility of alleviating poverty in a poverty-stricken state as Taraba, the deplorable working environment was most regrettable and urged the new commissioner to collaborate with the relevant authorities to ensure that the needful was done urgently.
“This is where we always sit and now that it is raining season, you should not be surprised if you come to work there is no one in the office. There is no functioning office here. We hope that with your coming, the state governor would do the needful and we would be able to have conducive working environment” he said.
The new commissioner, in his address, after receiving the hand over notes, said the ministry was too strategic for the growth of the state to be neglected and assured that the state government would do everything within its powers to make the environment conducive for their work.
Findings by Forefront revealed that several offices that were vandalized and office equipment, including furniture and Air conditioners, were looted by hoodlums during the protest.
The agencies that suffered destruction included the Taraba State e Environmental Protection Agency (TEPA), Taraba Radio Broadcasting Services (TSBS), Taraba State Tourism Development Board, (TSTDB) and the National Orientation Agency (NOA), among others.
It was gathered that six months after the incident, the state government is yet to renovate the vandalized offices, a situation that has forced many staffers in the affected offices to operate under trees.
At the Ministry of Cooperative and Poverty Alleviation, our finding further revealed that working tools purchased by the state government and were to be distributed to batch 3 of youths trained on skills acquisition worth over N60 million were among the items looted by hoodlums during the protest.
