Shelve rally, FG tells NLC – Daily Trust
October 29, 2009 by Bunmi Awolusi
The Federal Government yesterday made a last-minute appeal to labour to shelve its protest rally scheduled to hold in Abuja today, against government’s planned deregulation of the downstream oil sector. In case labour rejects the appeal, the police authorities in Abuja said they have deployed 3,000 policemen to “monitor” the protest rally organised by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) in conjunction with civil society groups.
Minister of Labour and Productivity Prince Adetokunbo Kayode, [SAN] made the appeal after yesterday’s Federal Executive Council meeting. He said labour should opt for continuous dialogue with the government over the issue rather than holding a protest rally.
Insisting that the merits of the proposed deregulation of the downstream oil sector outweigh the demerits, the minister said the government would always be ready for further dialogue with labour on the matter. “Government has not and will not foreclose engagement with labour. We had last May 1st, agreed with them on a number of issues, and we are still deliberating, so I want them to show understanding and shelve the strike’, he stated.
