The joint National Executive Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress suspended the nationwide indefinite strike, which they embarked upon on Tuesday. In accordance with the suspension, labour unions in different sectors of the economy suspended their strikes.
BusinessDay reports that the suspension of the strike was observed as banks and government parastals have resumed work this morning. Also, workers at the National Assembly could access the building and resume activities for the day. In Lagos, the ports have opened as maritime workers resumed at the ports and railway services commenced.
On Wednesday night, the joint National Executive Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress suspended the nationwide indefinite strike, which they embarked upon on Tuesday.
The body’s leadership said the decision to suspend the action was reached at a meeting that deliberated on the outcome of an earlier interface with the federal government, brokered by the national security adviser, Nuhu Ribadu.
Festus Osifo, President of the Trade Union Congress, confirmed the suspension of the action.
The labour leaders said they got a commitment from the Nuhu Ribadu-led meeting that those arrested for the physical assault on NLC President Joe Ajaero will be prosecuted.
Arrest and prosecution of those who attacked the president of the NLC were major demands of the labour leaders, who declared a nationwide strike on Tuesday.
“The NEC of the NLC and the TUC have suspended the strike. We did this based on our trust for the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, who gave us his words,” he said.
Labour leaders had, on Wednesday, met with the federal government over the ongoing strike, with a resolve to reschedule another meeting later in the night to decide whether or not to continue with the strike.
Read also:Nigerians face blackout as electricity workers join NLC strike
The meeting held at the office of Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser to the President, ended with labour leaders, led by Festus Osifo, President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), saying that they will meet later tonight to decide the next line of action.
Simon Lalong, Minister of Labour and Employment, who spoke to journalists at the end of the meeting, said the meeting discussed the incident in Imo and made far-reaching decisions.
Lalong, who noted that the meeting came under security consideration, said that was why the meeting was taken to the NSA office.
He noted that all the labour leaders attended the meeting.
Lalong said the labour agreed to take the outcome back to their members and consider the plea of the government to call off the strike in the nation’s interest.
“As you can see, all the labour leaders are here with us, and we had very useful discussions and very frank conversations.
“It is an ongoing discussion, but assured.
Osifo, in his comments, government has given labour ” a lot of assurances” including ” the earlier statement by the NSA that some people have been apprehended and that they will coordinate the investigation.”
Read also: National Assembly partially under lock as strike enters second day
“We also told him our part of the story, but at the end of the day, he made several appeals and promises of what they were going to do and the ones they have done.
“We said we are going back to appraise the conversion and communicate accordingly.
On how long the strike will be, Osifo noted that the ” strike was caused by something. It is the problems we came to have conversations on with all the assurances; we need to take it back.”
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