The organized labour on friday staged a walkout from the meeting of the Presidential Steering Committee on subsidy palliatives, which was supposed to be held at the presidential villa in Abuja.
Led by the President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, the delegation arrived at the Chief of Staff’s office, the designated meeting venue, around 5 pm, but they soon left the villa.
The purpose of the Steering Committee was to devise measures to ease the impact of fuel subsidy removal on workers. However, the meeting could not proceed due to the absence of a quorum, as some members of the Steering Committee were missing.
The labour union accused the federal government of using these meetings as a pretext to deceive the Nigerian people.
According to sources at the meeting, three subcommittees – Mass Transit, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), and Cash Transfer – were supposed to brief the Steering Committee on their plans to mitigate the effects of the fuel subsidy removal on workers. However, the government officials who were members of these subcommittees were nowhere to be found, as claimed by the labour representatives.
Earlier, the Chief of Staff, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, along with other government team members, waited for the labour delegation at his Conference Hall. He eventually had to attend to other official matters within the Villa while waiting for the organized labour to arrive.
The delay in the arrival of the organized labour delegation was reportedly due to a clearance issue at the State House entrance gate, known as Mopol gate. It was said that the names of the labour delegation were not sent for clearance, leading to the delay in their participation in the meeting.
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