News: Ajaero’s alleged assault: FG knocks Labour, strike records partial compliance

The Federal Government on Tuesday berated the organised Labour over the ongoing nationwide strike declared by union leaders following the assault on the Nigeria Labour Congress President, Joe Ajaero.

Kamarudeen Ogundele, the Special Assistant to the Minister of the Justice and the Attorney-General of the Federation, in an interview on Arise Television on Tuesday, said the strike was not in the interest of the country.

But President of the Trade Union Congress, Festus Osifo who also appeared on Arise Television, noted that the Governor of Imo state, Hope Uzodimma, had not apologised over the brutalisation of Ajaero.

He said this as nationwide strike declared by the organised Labour recorded partial compliance in several states on Tuesday.

Faulting the Labour leaders, Ogundele said, “Declaring a strike at this time will not be in the interest of the country. The country is trying to regain economic control and to also recover in several sectors. Instead of looking for at how we progress as a nation, there is no need for us to try to be involved in actions that will constitute a clog in the process of the country.”

When asked if the FG had not talked to the labour unions before it got to this stage of protest, Ogundele said who spoke on what he described as the genesis of the strike, said, “They (the labour unions) claimed that the NLC president was attacked in Imo State and I understand that there was an order of the court banning them from assembling or protesting in Imo. But they went against the order of the court by assembling. The government of the day is not out to promote violence but the labour unions have not come out to say the president of the country had a hand in what happened on that day. Why are they now trying to escalate what happened in the state to the whole federation?”

Justifying the strike, Osifo stated, “We allowed some of the essential services workers to work because we are also patriotic people at the end of the day. From our assessment, the strike has been successful based on our template and if the government continuously foot drags, more institutions will be shut down.

On the court order stopping the strike, Osifo said, “The government can not continually take black market injunctions to cripple Labour. They will have to arrest the entire Nigerians.”

But there was partial compliance to the strike. While workers in Lagos, Rivers, Kwara, Bauchi, Zamfara, and several other states completely shunned the strike as offices, schools, and banks opened, there was partial compliance in some states where some sectors partly obeyed the strike directive.

Partial observance was recorded in Anambra, Ondo, Kaduna, Borno, and Ogun states as banks and overnment offices were open in some of them while workers did not report at work in others.

The strike was declared by the NLC and the TUC to protest the alleged brutalisation of the NLC president, during a workers‘ protest in Owerri, Imo State, on November 1.

Banks, government and private-owned schools, and tertiary institutions across Lagos did not obey the strike directive.