By; Mohammed Kawu, Bauchi.
A History guide with the Yankari Resort and Safari in Bauchi has urged the state government to look into the workers plight of over-work with a view to ameliorate their sufferings.
According to him, most of the workers under the Yankari Resort are being over-worked, starting their duties as early as 6.00am and often closing by 11.00pm without any benefit of over-time payment.
“Workers here start duty sometimes by 6.00am before other government workers start their duties by 8.00am, and as public workers close by 4.00pm, here at Yankari we continue doing the work up to 11.00 o’clock in the night without any benefit for that”, he cried.
Malam Haruna Mohammed therefore advised the state government to look into their plight with a view to consider them for payment of over-time or offer them some allowance to boost their morale.
“We therefore beg the state government to consider the hardships we are encountering in the course of our duties here at Yankari Resort and Safari so as to ameliorate these hardships”, he said.
Mohammed, who earlier guided some members of the Bauchi Correspondents’ Chapel of the NUJ on excursion to some parts of the resort as parts of activities marking its week, said Yankari was established in 1956 and commissioned as a Games Reserve in 1962.
He recalled that Yankari was established by the Premier of the defunct Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, who then instructed the Minister of Agriculture of his time, Alhaji Muhammadu Ngilerima, and then Wali of Borno to commission the reserve.
According to guide Haruna Mohammed, Yankari Resort and Safari has 2, 244.10 square kilometers with 52 species of animals, 350 species of birds, and various historical sites, among others.
Mohammed revealed that Alhaji Jibrin Jiya, a Nupe by tribe was the first indigenous officer of Yankari Games Reserve, who first recruited Game Guards’ staff for surveillance against Poachers, after his visit to Undurman Games Reserve in Sudan Republic.
The guide, who also said that Yankari Resort and Safari which has five spring water points of Wikki, Gwana, Mawulgo, Dimis, and Tungan-Maliki is bounded in the West by Plateau, South by Taraba, East by Adamawa, and North by Gombe states.
He explained that Yankari constitute 60% of Alkaleri Local Government landmass, has three drilled wells namely Kolmani River, Kolmani River I, and Kolmani River II, all of which oil was discovered in but abandoned exploration for political reasons during Obasanjo administration.
Mohammed further revealed that Yankari had one of the Western African stop-over points tagged ‘Duke’ for merchants of the abolished slave trade where at the point, they sunk 132 wells for their use during the then obnoxious slavery period.
It also had the Marshal Cave served then as a hideout for people against slavery, as well as sedimentary rock spanning over seven kilometers in the reserve which is used in the product of ceramics.
