SMEDAN Trainees Hold Yero Hostage Over Unpaid Allowances

Hundreds of graduate trainees under the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) in Kaduna on Thursday held the State Governor, Mukhtar Yero, hostage over unpaid five-month allowances.

Although the target of the protest, The PUNCH correspondent gathered, was Yero, who narrowly escaped the anger of the placard-carrying youths. The youths besieged the venue of the inauguration event of the distribution of cheques to benefiaciaries of the ₦1 billion partnership fund between the state government and Bank of Industry (BoI).

The governor was represented by his Deputy, Nuhu Bajoga, at the event.

The protesters, who completed SMEDAN training since January this year, beat the security to find their way to the late Gen. Hassan Katsina House, Kawo, Kaduna, venue of the event.

At about 1.25pm, the aggrieved trainee graduates forced themselves into the main hall where they expected to see the governor himself but were disappointed that the deputy represented him.

Not done, the youths opted to disrupt the speech of the Deputy Governor.

As the written speech of the governor was read by the deputy, the protesting youths shouted him down.

They chanted solidarity songs, “What we are saying, give us our money!” to distract the listening guests.

The development forced the programme to end abruptly.

Government officials and other guests from the BoI at the ocassion had to rush into waiting vehicles to leave the venue of the event.

Inscription on some of the placards displayed by the protesters read: "SMEDAN programme is a fraud"; "This is 419"; "Give us our entitlements"; "We have not been paid any kobo but the state government said it has paid us; it is a lie"; and "You cannot use us and dump us, we are tired of this government."

A leader of the SMEDAN trainees, Abdulraman Salihu, said since they completed their training, the government had failed to pay them.

He said the trainees were entitled to ₦1bn across the state but till date none of them had received anything.

Salihu said: "We finished training since January this year, but the government refused to pay us and what we are hearing from people is that we have been paid, but nobody paid us any kobo.

"We are entitled to one billion Naira across the state, but up till now we have not been paid."

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