There was confusion yesterday at Rivers State Secretariat over what looked like a political order to stop the President of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, from addressing Rivers State workers.
The workers assembled for Wabba only for them to discover that the security men prevented the number one worker from entering the secretariat.
The workers, who were amazed about the development, became angry and decided to look for the security officer who locked the main entrance of the secretariat gate.
Our correspondent, who was at the secretariat when the drama was unfolding, gathered that the private security men guarding the main entrance of the secretariat acted on the “order from above” after the head of service, Rufus N. Godwin led the team that dismantled the rostrum.
When the NLC President discovered that his stay at the secretariat’s gate could cause uproar, he greeted the angry workers and urged them to meet him at the state secretariat of Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ).
One of the workers said: “When the head of service dismantled the rostrum already fixed for NLC President to address the workers, it was then that we realised that there is fire on the mountain. All the workers came out to see what was going to happen and when the President finally came the security man locked the gate and ran away.
“It is all about politics, we have a lot of issues to address but they don’t want the man to meet us.”
Wabba said the first priority of any government in the world is security of life and welfare of the citizens.
Wabba said: “I want to salute your courage and tenacity to come out here to listen to me and you have also remained committed despite the challenges. We are working together to address these problems. All through the history there is nothing that the workers have gotten.
“But before the time we started fighting for our minimum wage, worker work without condition of service, there is no maternity leave, minimum wage, gratuity, safety allowance etc so it was still our collective struggle from our first bearers that these rights were fought and won. That was why I said workers in this state should not worry we are going to fight and we will continue to fight because an injury to one is an injury to all. That was why the issue of collective struggle is very important.
“ I am aware that we have challenges and we know what the state chairman is going through. We are also aware of the issue of the contributory pension which had amounted to billions. It is also very unfortunate situation that these things are happening.”