Niger NLC Now to Draw Battle Line with State Government

The  Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Niger State has said it is now ready to battle the state government unless the administration of Governor Abubakar Sani Bello improved on its performance.

Labour said in Minna yesterday at the events to mark this years’s workers day held at the 123 football field that the one year grace it gave the government to get itself together had lapsed as such the administration should be ready for a showdown with its workforce.

NLC chairman in the state, Comrade Yahaya Idris Ndako, who dropped the warning, said one of the first demand of labour is stoppage of the staff verification exercise started over six months ago.

Ndako said the consultant handling the job had shown incompetence and had also made many workers to suffer as a result of their inability to get their salaries in the last three months.

Ndako advised the governor not to assent to the amended Contributory Pension Scheme law because it would not serve the interest of pensioners.

The labour leader also charged the state government to as a matter of urgency re- introduced the payment of leave grant, implement CONHESS for local government Nurses, Animal Health and Social Welfare workers as well give vehicle loans to civil servants.

The state governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello said the ongoing verification was not in anyway aimed at witch hunting anybody but to actually know the numbers of the workforce in the state.

Governor Abubakar Sani Bello in an address to the ceremony defended the staff verification exercise saying it is meant to eliminate ghost workers so as to save money for the execution of meaningful development projects in the state.