By Ishaya Ibrahim
Civil servants at the Ministry of Works have confined the minister, Dave Umahi, to his office on Thursday.
According to a report by Nation, the civil servants accused Umahi of being tyrannical.
They said he barred them from entering their office because they came late.
With the backing of their union, the workers decided to lock up the ministry. The action was taken when the minister was in his office.
They prevented entry and exit into the building thereby preventing the minister from leaving the office.
Last week, Umahi raised an alarm that civil servants and contractors have been blackmailing him.
In a video shared on X, the minister lamented the deplorable state of Nigerian roads during a press briefing at a construction site, blaming it on contractors and civil servants.
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He said it took him 14 hours to travel from Abuja to Edo (distance normally not more than six hours) due to the bad roads.
Umahi said despite the shoddy jobs done by contractors, civil servants would hurriedly certify payments for them.
He had said: “I’m aware of very serious blackmail going on from the contractors and even civil servants about this intervention that the president is doing on our road.
“I keep lamenting that from Abuja to Edo state I stayed for 14 hours. It served me well. As a leader in this country, it serves me very well to see what Nigerians are going through on our roads on a daily basis despite the trillions being given.
“The blame is on civil servants. Civil servants are the problems of this country. We need to bring their leaders, let us discuss. Civil servants are the ones that are certifying payments. Most of them have joined contractors on the mission of blackmailing me,” he said.