NLC Tasks FG on Insecurity

By Hammed Shittu in Ilorin

Worried by the spate of insecurity issue in the country, the Deputy President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Najeem Yasin, yesterday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to tackle the security challenges plaguing the country frontally.

Yasin described the insecurity in the north especially along Kaduna-Abuja axis as alarming.

The deputy president of NLC, who is also regional chair, International Transport Federation of Africa, made this known to reporters in Offa, Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State on the sidelines of the commissioning of TVS tricycle assembling plant.

He said “I was born and weaned in Zamfara, old Sokoto State, because of insecurity I cannot travel there now.

“I urge government to rise up to the occasion. Government can do that by employing more youths into the military and other security personnel.

“Though, I learnt that federal government had drafted security personnel to the Kaduna-Abuja Road.”

Speaking the State Chairman of Tricycle Owners Association of Nigeria (TOWAN) Mr. Salihu Gidado, decried the soaring cost of buying tricycles in the country.

He said: “I want the federal government to do something to the skyrocketing cost of tricycles. It is too expensive. I started tricycle business when a tricycle went for N25,000.

“Currently, a tricycle costs N1.1 million. I want federal goverment to do something on this so that the youths can benefit from it. Over 90 per cent of those in tricycle business are youths.”

In his remarks, Senior Special Assistant (SSA), to Governor AbdulRaman Abdulrazaq on Community Intervention Mr. Kayode Oyin-Subir, said that the project is public-private-partnership (PPP) endeavor.

He added that Kwara people especially Offa people would gain a lot from the project.

Oyin-Zubair said that a private investor contributed the sum of N38 million to the project to “the facility job opportunities for our youths. We have already taken delivery of eleven units of tricycle. Going forward there is also room for salesmen and agents.

“The benefits inherent in this establishment cannot be fully explored.

“The state government through another collaboration last year provided a sum of N100 million for the purchase of 100 tricycles.

“The intervention was the basis for the state to negotiate for this current project we are commissioning.

“An investor who was convinced that the project is worthwhile provided a sum of N38 million and the project was completed in less than three month.”