Environmental health crisis may be brewing in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as the striking environmental workers on Thursday threatened to shut down all public cemeteries in Abuja.
This came after the Gudu Cemetery was locked up on Wednesday, but the workers were prevailed upon after pressure from both the administration and the Presidency was mounted on them.
The angry workers had two days ago demonstrated and subsequently embarked on an indefinite strike over the failure of FCT Administration to implement a new salary structure for them.
Chairman of Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE) in AEPB, Comrade Muktar Bala, said the unions agreed to reopen the cemeteries but will shut them down again, including all other operational systems of the board.
Bala, who expressed angst over the attitude of the administration towards the welfare of members of the union, noted that they have been exposed to several health hazards by handling burial of abandoned corpses, yet government doesn’t appreciate their efforts.
According to him, the reopening of the cemeteries was temporary, due to the agreement reached between the administration and its national body, but would be shut down again should there be failure on the side of government.
He said, “As the Chairman of one of the unions in AEPB, I can assure you that it is a collective decision by the whole union, with backing from the national union. People think it is only waste management that we do. They don’t know that even unclaimed corpses in hospitals are taken care of by us.
“These dead bodies that have over stayed in the hospital for 3 to 4 years, we take care of them, without knowing what killed them.
“Hospitals come to us when they want mass burial for such dead bodies. If there are unclaimed or unknown corpse either on the roads or elsewhere, Police will write reports and bring them to us for burial.”
