…asks Tinubu to revive Warri, Port Harcourt, Kaduna refineries
Segun Ayinde, Abeokuta
Organised Labour comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC) and Trade Union Congress(TUC), on Wednesday, shutdown major roads in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, to protest the removal of fuel subsidy
Recall that the organised Labour last week Wednesday gave Federal Government a seven-day ultimatum to reverse its anti-people policies or face industrial action.
But the workers while protesting in Ogun State, asked President Bola Tinubu to urgently address all the anti-peoples policies by his administration, especially on the removal of fuel subsidy.
They insisted that by removing the fuel subsidy the present Federal Government had only added to the hardship of Nigerians, calling on Tinubu to revive the country’s refineries.
The labour lamented that since the removal of subsidy, the cost of living, transportation, food commodities have skyrocketed, as Nigerians continue to groan under harsh economy.
They also described the removal of fuel subsidy, hike in school fees and VAT as poor policies, while demanding the release of eight months withheld salaries of university lecturers.
The workers armed with various placards took to the streets of Abeokuta from its NLC secretariat in Leme to the governor’s office in Oke-Mosan preventing free vehicular movement.
Part of the inscriptions on their placards reads: ” Stop importation of patrol, revive our refineries now!!!; Let the poor breathe, don’t suffocate the them; Give workers what is due; Stop the looting, tax the rich and subsidise the poor” e.t.c
NLC chairman in the state, Com. Hammed Ademola, while addressing the workers, said that the protest was in compliance with the directive of the national body of the union.
Ademole said that it was high time labor took its destiny in its hands to tell the president that Nigerians were suffering due to the removal of fuel subsidy ams other anti-peoples policies.
“We have to be on the street, we must not wait until we die, our destiny is always in our hands and now is the right time for us to tell the government of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu that we Nigerians are suffering.”
“The fuel subsidy removal has caused a lot of hardship, untold hardship onto the masses of this nation. We are suffering, we have crude oil yet we are still buying abroad, enough is enough”, he stressed
While, speaking Com. Akeem Lasisi of the state’s TUC, requested the reversal of fuel subsidy, saying “Subsidy is the constitutional responsibility of any government, subsidy is a global practice, so it is unfortunate in this country that our own subsidy is marred with corruption.
“Instead of government to remove the corruption in subsidy, they removed subsidy itself.”
They, however, demanded the repair of Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries in the country.
