The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has alleged that Ekiti labour leaders are in conspiracy with the state governor, Ayodele Fayose, to frustrate the impeachment plot against the latter.
The core of the governor, labour leaders conspiracy, according to the Ekiti APC, is a plan for workers in the state to go on a prolonged strike and keep all government offices locked till the expiration of the tenure of the 19 APC lawmakers in the state.
In a statement on Wednesday, the state APC Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, said, “It is wicked and selfish for labour leaders to go behind the workers to negotiate a multi-million naira deal for their private pockets while herding other workers on partisan protest that is clearly against the service rule.”
The APC said the labour leaders should not drag the Ekiti workers into partisan politics, alleging that the labour leaders had abandoned the interests of their members to hobnob with the state government for personal benefits.
Olatubosun said the party was aware that some labour leaders had so far collected N30m from the state government for various solidarity rallies in the last six months.
He added that some of the labour leaders would soon instigate the innocent workers to a politically-motivated industrial action that would last till the middle of June when the APC lawmakers would have left the Assembly.
Olatubosun explained that this option was preferred to the earlier plan by the government to declare a forced 10-day holiday starting from May 29.
He said the new deal was struck with the labour leaders at a meeting with the governor on April 27 where the two options were considered.
Olatubosun alleged that the labour leaders agreed to the second option of shutting down all government institutions after settling for a N10m bribe.
“To set the planned strike in motion, the governor has offered to pay half salary for April, which labour would reject thus leading to a disagreement that would spark a strike action,” he explained.
The party alleged that some leaders of the Nigeria Union of Teachers and the National Union of Local Government Employees were known card-carrying members of the Peoples Democratic Party.
However, the Nigeria Labour Congress in Ekiti has denied the allegations by the APC.
In an interview with our correspondent, the vice chairman of the congress, Mr. Samuel Akosile, said the allegations were “mischievous and ridiculous.”
Akosile, who doubles as the state NUT Chairman, said, “Our position as a union has been that since people gave the governor a four year mandate, he should be allowed to govern the state.
“If they are saying they want to impeach the governor, they are not doing the people of the state any good. Nobody has agreed with the government to pay half salary and nobody is talking about strike. Our advice is that they (APC lawmakers) should reason with the people and drop the impeachment plan. All we want in Ekiti State is peace.”
No comments:
Post a Comment