The Organised labour in Kogi State has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to direct humanitarian agencies of the government to send relief materials to the dying workers of the state.
The secretaries of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Olakunle Faniyi; Trade Union Congress (TUC); Comrade Kolawole James and their Joint Public Services Negotiating Council (JPSNC) counterpart, Comrade Isah Abubakar, made the appeal in a statement in Lokoja.
The Labour leaders said the agony the workers of Kogi state are passing through are not in any way less than the experiences of victims of natural disasters.
They noted that a situation where workers cannot afford even one meal a day and pay school fees of their children is already a humanitarian issue.
“As it stands today in Kogi State, over thirty percent (>30%) of the workforce are being owed Twenty One months salaries, twenty percent (20%) have unpaid salaries between eleven and eighteen months while about forty percent (40%) took their salaries up till June this year. These are the categories of workers Kogi State Government is forcing to embrace the ‘clock-in, clock-out policy’ of the government.
“The Organized Labour therefore call on the Government to treat Kogi workers with dignity because even in the era of slave trade, slaves were not forced to work on empty stomach,” the statement reads.
They noted that it is most unfortunate that the State Government, instead of apologizing to the workers and their families over the untold hardship that they had been subjected to, the Government takes delight in buying pages of newspapers to roll out falsehood on how workers have been paid their salaries up till July.
They advised the State Government to accept the reality on ground and stop the current intimidation and coercion tactics they usually employ when it comes to workers’ demands for their rights.
They also called on well meaning Kogites and other Nigerians not to sit on the fence on the issues affecting the lives of millions of indigenes of the state.
