Labour Union’s Move Deceitful, Says CNPP

The Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has warned Nigerians against the futility of the planned industrial action by the organised labour over increase in pump price of petrol.

The group said  Nigerians should  not  trust the labour unions as they have been compromised, adding that the planned strike action scheduled for Wednesday will not last beyond Friday.

In a statement issued yesterday by the CNPP National Secretary, Willy Ezeugwu, the group accused the leadership of the labour unions of using the strike as a ploy to scuttled genuine actions against the increment in the pump price of petrol as they did in 2012.

The umbrella body of political parties in Nigeria said this in a statement jointly signed by its National Chairman, Alhaji Balarabe Musa and the Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu.

According to the CNPP, “What the labour unions are doing now by calling for a strike action is what they did in 2012 during the Occupy Nigeria protests in response to similar increase in the pump price of petrol under former President Goodluck Jonathan. The labour unions later scuttled the action by purportedly entering into an agreement with the then government on behalf of Nigerians and ended up fixing the pump price of petrol at N97.00 per litre.

“Nigerians must be beware that the planned strike action scheduled for Wednesday won’t last beyond Friday. The labour leaders have been compromised and are using the call as a ploy to deceive the masses.

“We have it on good authority that the labour leaders are compromised. Recall that the labour leaders were at a meeting where the decision to inflict more and more pains on the already impoverished Nigerian people by increasing the pump price was taken and never protested against it. Why the sudden U-turn by the same labour leaders?

“The ever increasing hardship enthroned on Nigerians by the current government cannot be be tolerated. The federal government and its labour collaborators must be told that the CNPP, the masses and the civil society shall occupy Nigeria until the reversal of the pump price of patrol. Enough of more and more suffering under the guise of fuel subsidy removal,” the statement.