From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Ikenga Ugochinyere, has commended the resolutions of the House to intervene in the ongoing strike by organized labour.
Ugochinyere, in a interview with journalists, in Abuja, said the attack on President of the Nigerian Labour Congress ( NLC), Joe Ajaero, by some persons in Imo State, which precipitated the strike, was allegedly aimed at undermining the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
Consequently, the lawmaker said while efforts are on to get organized labour to call off the strike, which has paralyzed government activities in different parts of the country, bolds steps must be taken to deal with criminal activities.
“Let me commend the speaker of the House of Representatives and the Deputy Speaker who is the mover of the motion of urgent importance today on the NLC strike and the resolution of the House to intervene, I think it is quiet commendable. This has truly shown that the tenth House of Representatives is indeed the peoples parliament as we are popularly called today, ” he stated.
However, Ugochinyere stated that it is not enough for the government to say that those, who attacked Ajaero , have been arrested; noting that Nigerians will like to see if the culprits were actually the ones arrested.
According to him, “now you have a group of thugs and criminal elements who not only attack the president of the Nigerian Labour Congress, but have been attacking other innocent citizens.
“This strike was avoidable. These people that carried out this attack wanted to undermine President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, because if you believe in the Presidents agenda you should know the implication of attacking the President of NLC at a time the government is engineering a reconciliation process that will bring things to normalcy.
“So because it is the President of the NLC, if decisive action is not taken against them, they will be so emboldened to continue to attack other persons. So, when I heard the news that they have been arrested, Nigerians will want to see whether it’s the culprits that have been arrested, not just to fly the news that someone has been arrested.”