FILE PHOTO: Construction workers

Workers at the Centre South Construction Company (CSCC) in Ogun on Monday protested their 72-hour incarceration by the management over a theft at its construction site.

The workers told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that over 30 workers were locked in at the firm’s three construction sites since Friday and were only set free on Monday morning.

NAN reports that CSCC, the Chinese firm handling the construction of Sango-Ota – Mowe Road, has three construction sites at Sango-Ota, Oke-Aro and Mowe in Ogun.

The lock in, according to the workers who were on weekend duty, was to prevent them from stealing the company’s property.

According to the workers, the management also put out electricity and water supply in the premises, prompting the stranded workers to rely on hawkers passing by the gate.

The workers told NAN that they were shocked when the management ordered that those on weekend duty should be locked in the three company’s premises on Friday.

They said they could not leave the premises until the company’s senior officials resumed at 7 a.m. on Monday.

They wondered why workers in the three formations had to suffer for the theft of the company’s items which occurred at Sango-Ota.

“What if there are emergencies like fire outbreak or someone fell sick among the locked in workers,’’ one of the workers told NAN at the Oke-Aro site.

When contacted, Mr Ben Xhen, a senior official of the company, told NAN that the company’s security outfit, Pahek Security Services Limited, advised the management to lock in the workers.

But a manager with Phabek, who pleaded anonymity, told NAN that the security firm never gave such an advice to the construction company.

He said that when the workers notified the security outfit of the lock in, it advised the construction company to unlock the workers.

He added that the security company could not have ordered the lock in of the workers including its own personnel inside the sites because of a theft in one formation.