By Correspondent in Minna
The organised labour in Niger state has cried out over insecurity in Niger state, adding that many people are now living at the mercy of armed bandits whose activities they said had claimed hundreds of lives and property worth millions of naira destroyed.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), therefore called on the state government to end anti-workers’ policy which they noted “is fast creepling in and affecting mostly the Ministry of Finance and its Local Government counterpart with huge financial liabilities.
Armed bandits traversing long stretch of state in hinterlands, according to the labour “is one ugly trend deserving government’s attention by deploying security agencies to check brazen effrontery and modus operandi of the criminals with a view to ending their siege”.
Comrade Yakubu Garba, state Chairman of NLC, stated this during the 2021 International Workers’ Day in Minna.
He said “YYour Excellency, the raining season is here again, it is our prayer that all relevant stakeholders should be rallied to ensure that our teeming farmers have access to their farms, to engage in farming activities unhindered by armed bandits and kidnappers”.
“Most of the victims in; Munya, Shiroro, Rafi and Mariga are farmers and failure to check activities of armed bandits could cause severe hunger and poverty, hence. “Organised labour hereby condemns in strong terms,the gusto style attacks on innocent citizens”,
“May we remind the government that, its primary responsibility$, as enshrined in the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as ammended), is the security and welfare of citizens. A society without security wouldn’t have any semblance of development and progress”.
“Many Nigerlites, especially in rural communities, cannot sleep with their two eyes closed, out of fear of the unknown due to the activities of armed bandits, the organise labour,therefore, expects the state government to act fast to ease further tension.”
The labour leader also called on the state government,to as a matter of urgency, deploy enough security forces to the troubled areas and support them with adequate logistics to boost their operational capabilities to enable the villagers return to their homes and farmlands.
“Government should not tamper with workers’ salaries and deductions. “May I draw your attention to some salient issues bothering on unhealthy anti-workers’ policy which started from November, 2020 till date and has left two ministries with huge liabilities due to non-remittance of deductions made from workers salaries from 2020 to 2021,”he added.
Governor Abubarkar Sani Bello, who spoke through the Secretary to State Government (SSG), Alhaji Ibrahim Ahmed Matane commended workers for the cordial working relationship that has existed between it and civil servants.
The Governor,who assured them of adequate and timely payment of statutory pensions and gratuities of workers, based on available, resources however urged the labour to understand the peculiar situation the state government wad and “the need not to expect it to meet all their demands.”
