Some of the civil servants, who were heard chanting "Umahi Must Go," accused the minister of being insensitive to the hardship they face due to the removal of the fuel subsidy.
Activities were grounded to a halt at the Federal Ministry of Works as workers staged a protest after the minister, David Umahi, ordered that they should be locked out for reporting late for work.
The workers numbering about 300 protested at the entrance of the ministry for about nearly four hours against the minister's order before normalcy was restored.
During the protest, they also blocked entrances to the ministry located in the Mabushi area of Abuja thus preventing visitors from gaining entry.
Some of the civil servants, who were heard chanting "Umahi Must Go," accused the minister of being insensitive to the hardship they face due to the removal of the fuel subsidy.
The workers said they reside on the outskirts of Abuja such as Gwagwalada, Abaji, Kuje, Kwali and Kaduna Road satellite towns and that there was no way they could get to the office early besides spending more on transportation.
The Guardian newspaper reported that one of the ministry's senior staff, who requested not to be named because of victimisation, explained that sometimes some of them join others who have cars to come to work to reduce the cost of transportation.
"Some of them are on a N100,000 salary a month, some are on N80,000 salary a month and they are married people. So by the time you subtract both transport and everything, you are left with nothing. So, they have to rely on one way or the other to come to office," he said.
It was, however, gathered that the minister accepted their plea and ordered that the gates should be reopened but the aggrieved workers refused to enter, insisting that Mr Umahi must come out from his office to address them.
The minister was reported to have addressed the workers during which he asked them not to join the proposed strike called by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) for 3 October.
Mr Umahi also urged the workers to support the transformative innovation of the Tinubu administration.
