The sharing of palliatives from the Federal Government is threatening Niger State, North Central Nigeria as stakeholders could not agree on the sharing formulae.
The Niger State Government announced the receipt of N3billion from the Federal Government including N1billion in food items with a balance of N2 billion.
Niger state Governor, Hon. Mohammed Umar Bago over the weekend acknowledged receiving N3 billion cash and told journalists that the state government received N1 billion worth of different food items from the federal government as fuel subsidy removal palliatives.
The organised Labour in the state was said to be allocated the sum of N110 million as part of the fuel subsidy removal largesse by the Niger state government but rejected it insisting that each worker should be given N50, 000.
State chairman of the NLC, Comrade Abdulkarim Idris Lafene disclosed this while addressing journalists saying anything short of N50, 000 (fifty thousand Naira) for each worker will not be acceptable.
“The Nigeria Labour Congress and the entire organized labour is hereby rejecting the N110 million allocated to it from the fuel subsidy removal palliatives. We are demanding that every worker be given N50,000 across boards to all working class and retirees at the state level and local government as well”.
In addition, Comrade Lafene told journalists after the exhaustive emergency meeting which took place at the Labour House, near UK Bello Arts Theatre that such money should be credited to the salary accounts of civil servants and retirees of both the state and local government sustainably for 6 months.
Meanwhile, the state Labour leader has directed workers in Niger state to boycott the committee set up by the state government for the sharing and distribution of the palliatives scheduled to commence tomorrow, Wednesday.
Deliberate plans by the Governor Umar Bago led administration to treat the working class unfairly in the sharing formular according to Comrade Idris Lafene has created so much tension among the entire state and local government workforce.
Also throwing more light on the directives from the NLC at the national level to the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja concerning the two days warning industrial strike begining from today (Tuesday) the NLC chairman said the entire state work force have already been mobilised to ensure full compliance.
