Cross River State civil servants, on Friday, protested against the decision of the state governor, Ben Ayade, to pay their December salary on the first day of the month.
The workers usually receive bank alert for the payment of their salaries on December 25, but got it December 1 this year.
It would be the second time they are receiving salaries on the first day of the month, as it also happened in May this year, as Governor Ayade commemorated Workers’ Day celebration.
The angry civil servants, complained that the decision to pay their salaries in advance, would later cause untold hardship as Christmas approaches.
“The state government’s decision to pay December salaries of some civil servants within the first three days of the month will make us suffer in due course,” a top civil servant in the Ministry of Environment, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Punch.
“The government should have employed caution by delaying December salary payments to a later date. Our governor may want to score a political point with this payment, but I think that those of us receiving this money stand to lose fiscally when January comes.”
But one of the governor’s aides, who pleaded anonymity, said: “People are so impossible to please. There are states in this country where salaries are not paid as and when due, but in Cross River State, our governor pays salaries and even pays ahead to cater for special occasions like the Workers’ Day and this Yuletide.
