The staff are calling for the minister’s head, over what they described as negligence of staff welfare and gross misappropriation of public funds.
The protesters, blocked the gate of the ministry, told reporters that they were subjected to work under poor conditions, delay of promotion arrears, non-payment of repatriation allowances and selective training of staff.
They called on President Buhari to probe activities of the ministry over non-payment of allowances, refusal to train staff, among others.
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Meanwhile, the minister in charge of the ministry, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, reacted to the action, saying that the ministry’s resources are inadequate to meet workers’ welfare.
“It is not unusual for unions to call for the removal of ministers. Any minister should expect that. They are complaining about welfare, but there is a limit to what government can do within the available resources,” Mr. Mohammade told State House correspondents.
“As much as we sympathise with them on the situation, the economy is simply not healthy enough to accommodate what it is used to accommodate in the past.
“If anybody is concerned and worried about expenditures in my ministry, they should go and check because it is open. We have appealed to them several times, but we met a culture that we cannot sustain.”