The workers of Ecotra are in shock after the incident involving Ahmed Ndiaye, a 31-year-old polytechnic engineer, arrested Sunday in Ziguinchor after a noisy intervention at the home of the mother of Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko. In a fit of intense anger, he uttered insults and threats against the PM’s family, accusing the head of government of all the evils. Faced with public opinion’s outrageous reaction, his colleagues reacted… in a note obtained by L’Observateur, they sought to explain the young man’s gesture. D’abord, ils tendent à lever toute équivoque : ” contrary to what has been suggested, Ahmed Ndiaye did not carry a handgun. However, Ahmed Ndiaye, lui-même, has specified it to the boutiquier du quartier, peut-être pour lui faire peur et éviter d’être lynché “, soulignent ses collègues. According to them, the act of M. Ndiaye was in no way motivated by violence, but rather by despair. “The fact that Mr Ousmane Sonko’s family was threatened with death was an expression of his concern at the imminent collapse of his company (…) The real reason for Mr Ndiaye’s presence at Mr Sonko’s house had nothing to do with any threat of death”, they said. For the colleagues of Ndiaye, it was a cry for help, a cry of alarm in the face of a critical situation. ” The 1500 employees of Ecotra have not received their salaries for six months, a crisis directly linked to the non-payment of the public debt by the State of Senegal. This context of extreme precariousness, which impacts not only M. Ndiaye but also thousands of families, explains his gesture of despair.
Des travailleurs d’Ecotra justify the act of their colleague, on the grounds of “salary arrears”
