Organised Labour walks out of meeting on fuel price with FG

23 Nov Organised Labour walks out of meeting on fuel price with FG

Five minutes after it began, leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Sunday walked-out of a meeting with  Federal Government representatives led by Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige over the recent increment of the price of Premium Motor Spirit also known as petrol.

The government had called for a meeting yesterday  to avert a scheduled nationwide protest. The NLC and TUC had threatened to protest the recent increase in the prices of petrol and electricity.

The NLC was represented by the President of Nigeria Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), Joe Ajaero and the President of Trade Union Congress (TUC), Quadri Olaleye.

Representing the federal government were the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige; Minister of State for Labour, Festus Keyamo; Minister of State for Petroleum, Timiprye Sylva; Minister of State for Power, Goddy Agba and the Secretary to the Government, Boss Mustapha.

TUC President, Quadri Olaleye told Channels TV that the federal government was dishonest and playing to the gallery and painting the organised labour in a bad light before civil servants and the public.

According to him, this meeting was not going to be as usual because Labour had seen the insincerity of government in putting them at risk.

“We are in the process of discussing, for over three months now. And they made announcement increasing the fuel price again by no other person than NNPC. When has authority been given to NNPC to increase the price of PMS? This is unacceptable.

“The meeting agenda is not well prioritised. And because of that, we are leaving the meeting. We will not continue, we will go back to our organ, and we are going to get back to you on the next line of action,” he said.

But Ngige said, “We felt that the item of increase in PMS, having been listed at all as an additional item, would have satisfied everybody.”