By Demola Akinyemi

ILORIN—There was pandemonium in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, yesterday morning, as scores of aggrieved beneficiaries of Federal Government’s Subsidy Re- Investment Programme, SURE-P, in the state stormed major streets to protest non-payment of their monthly salaries for the last eight months.

However, Kwara State Coordinator of SURE-P, Chief Moses Ibiyemi, described the protest as sponsored, adding that the protesters were no more on the lists of SURE-P beneficiaries in the state.

He said: “Those who were protesting along major streets in Ilorin are not our members; those aged women among them were paid to join the protest.”
The protesters displayed placards bearing insulting inscriptions against the management of SURE-P in the state.
Spokesman of the group, Mr. Uthman Bello, told journalists that they resorted to the street protests having explored all peaceful options to make the authorities concerned pay their money to no avail.

Bello added that they had it on good authority that the money was remitted to the authorities in the state monthly, in the last eight months and wondered why they were not paid.

The protesters particularly accused the management of SURE-P in the state for allegedly diverting the money released to pay them to their private pockets.

The spokesperson urged the Presidency to intervene in their plights.

He also said they had made a lot of contacts with the management of SURE-P in the state, without any response from the appropriate authorities.

Bello said: “I want to say that we have it on good authority that the Federal Government has released our money to the management of SURE-P in Kwara to pay us. But the management has refused to pay us.”

Contacted, the state coordinator of SURE-P, Chief Moses Ibiyemi,