From Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Kebbi State chapter, has told the state government to implement the N30,000 minimum wage and payment of all withheld salaries of Local Government workers by their Councils Chairmen.
Acting State Chairman of the NLC, Aliyu Abubakar Udu,who led members of the union after their short-time protest from the Birnin Kebbi stadium to the Deputy Governor’s office, urged the state government to immediately release additional palliative to the workers.
He also insisted that the state government should provide additional bags of fertiliser to the farmers to increase food production, implementation of approved promotion by the Ministry of Finance, implementation of promotion and advancement of newly qualified health workers which was approved by the state government among others.
In their placards with inscriptions such as ‘stop hunger,fix local refineries, Education is our rights, stop increasing schools fees,and end devaluation of naira ‘, the union also sought for the creation of Kebbi State transportation to ease the hardship of transportation within and outside the state.
The protest was strickly monitored by the Security agencies including the Nigeria Police,DSS, NSCDC among others
While delivering the labour requests,Udu said: “we reiterate our preparedness to resist every action of tye government to inflict suffering on Kebbi State workers and masses. We will not allow our members to be turned mindlessly into beasts of burden any longer.
‘We will stand together as workers and as a people to protect our rights to decent work and social justice”.
He added that the NLC hands are extended to all civil societies and allies stressed that,it is their civil duty to remain together to build a states and nation that would be the envy of other nations.
In his reaction, the Deputy Governor , Senator Umar Abubakar Tafida assured the NLC members that he would delivered their messages to the Governor,Dr. Nasir Idris. He also thanked them for their peaceful protest.