Workers of BOFAS, a road construction company that constructed a vital road into Bamenda, North West Region, have begun protesting over the non-payment of accumulated salaries.
The workers, MMI gathered, have not received payment for work they did on a four-kilometer stretch from Welcome to Bamenda to the Chantal Biya Foundation in Bamenda.
The stretch under construction is part of the trans-African road that the World Bank and the Cameroon Government jointly sponsored.
The protesting workers carried placards with different messages expressing their frustrations and anger.
Some of the workers said they badly need their salaries to pay their hospital bills and fund their children’s education.
“I have worked and deserve to be compensated,” a worker’s placard read.
Demanding that the company should swiftly remunerate them, the BOFAS workers stated that they deserve their wages.
“All the stakeholders concerned should pay our money. This is money we have worked for. We are not begging. You cannot put in so much for work and at the end you are struggling to ask for money. We have sacrificed a lot on this road and it is our basic right to receive payment,” a worker said.
According to the workers, the prolonged delay in payment has deprived some of them of basic needs.
“Some of us have died from frustration, others are critically sick, children are home because of school fees,” another said.
“The Minister is quiet, the World Bank had disbursed money long ago; the control mission is quiet and BOFAS is nowhere. We are frustrated and stranded.”
At the time of this report, BOFAS was not readily available for comment on the lingering issue.
The same company is in charge of constructing the Nkambe–Misaje stretch of the Ring Road in the North West Region.
