Labour Rejects Sale of Govt Quarters in Kaduna

Senator Iroegbu in Abuja
The Kaduna State chapters of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) have rejected the sale of government quarters by the state government to “highest bidder.”

The labour unions in a joint statement signed yesterday by the NLC state chairman, Adamu Ango, and his TUC counterpart Shehu Mohammed, expressed shock at the news about the sale of the quarters allegedly to political officer holders.

“The entire workers of Kaduna State Government were taken aback by a paid advert in the Daily Trust Newspapers, Vol. 42 No 1 of February 27, 2017, relating to the sales of government quarters in the state to the political office holders disguised in the name of highest bidders,” the statement read.

The organised labour union said the decision of the Kaduna State Executive Council was without recourse to all relevant stakeholders in the state especially the workers of Kaduna State who are the creators of wealth and the legal occupants of these properties.

The union expressed disappointment that the civil servants working for the state government and that are currently occupying these quarters were never given option of first refusal before the extension of offer to the public.

They stressed that another area of concern to the public servants of the state, who receives peanut as salaries and wages when compared with those of the political office holders of the state, was the mode of payments for these quarters after being sold to the individual buyers.

“That is, payment of 25 per cent of purchase price (including 10 per cent non-refundable deposit), must be made to the Kaduna State Government within 90 days of being declared winner. Balance of 75 per cent must be paid by all purchasers within an additional 90 days, thus, all purchasers must effect full payment within 180 days of contract.

“From the above condition, tell me which civil servant of the state can afford this payment. This condition in the first instance is contrary to the provision of the Federal Mortgage Bank arrangement of issuing loans to the civil servants from all over the federation,” the statement added.

To this end, the union advised that the Kaduna State Government to “borrow a leave from the federal government which in its monetisation programme gave workers who are the legal occupants of government houses an unconditional right/option of first refusal, this is more so that the federal government policy was midwife by the selfsame Mallam Nasiru el-Rufa’i.”