Kogi Workers Send SoS To Nigerian Govt For Relief Materials as Strike Continues

The organised labour in Kogi State on Wednesday appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to direct humanitarian agencies of the government to send relief materials to the dying workers of the state as strike continues.  

The secretaries of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Olakunle Faniyi; the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Kolawole James, and their Joint Public Services Negotiating Counterpart, Isah Abubakar, made the appeal in a statement issued in Lokoja.  

The labour leaders lamented that the agony the workers of the state go through is not in any way less than the experiences of victims of natural disasters.

They noted that a situation where workers cannot afford even one meal a day and pay the school fees of their children was already a humanitarian issue.

   "As it stands today in Kogi State,  over 30 percent of the workers are being owed 21 months salaries,  20 percent have unpaid salaries between 11 and 18 months while about 45 percent took their salaries up till June this year.   "These are the categories of workers state government is forcing to embrace the clock-in-clock-out policy of the government," the statement added.

  The organised labour therefore called on the state government to treat workers with dignity because not even in the era of slave trade slaves were force to work on empty stomach.   They noted that it was most unfortunate that the state government instead of apologising to the workers and their families over the untold hardship that they have been subjected to,  the government takes delight in buying pages of newspaper to roll out falsehood on how workers have been paid their salaries up till July.

 The organised labour therefore advised the state government to accept the reality on ground and stop the current intimidation and coercion tactics they usually employ when it comes to workers’ demands for their rights.