The Nigeria Labour Congress has accused the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, of mobilising thugs to stop the planned workers’ protest billed for Tuesday in Port Harcourt.
It alleged that the plan was to unleash violence on workers protesting the failure of the government to pay their minimum wage.
The state workers had been at loggerheads with the governor over outstanding salary and promotion arrears since 2015, as well as payment of pension and gratuity to retired workers in the state.
The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, in a statement on Sunday titled, ‘NLC warns Governor Wike on plans to use thugs to disrupt the protest of September 8, 2020,’ further explained that workers were still searching for the abducted state chairman of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria.
The statement added, “We wish to reiterate that any attempt to disrupt our rally come Tuesday, September 8, 2020, would not only be another frontal attack against the Nigerian Constitution by Governor Wike but would also be a continuation of Wike’s reign of impunity and an ill-conceived ploy to exterminate Organised Labour in Rivers State.”
The union argued that the right to peaceful assembly and protest was not just a constitutional right, but also a fundamental universal human rights protected by international treaties signed up by Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the state government has said it was not involved in the abduction of the state chairman of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria.
The Attorney-General of the State and Commissioner for Justice, Prof. Zacchaeus Adangor in a statement also warned Wabba that a case between labour and the state government was at the industrial court.
The commissioner said, “This allegation which is the product of a warped mind, shows that Comrade Wabba has no scintilla of respect for the judicial process in our courts.
