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Tag: Ayodeji Aluko

  • Salary crisis: Ekiti NLC, TUC impose 10-year ban on two Labour leaders

    ‘Unions remain dissolved,’ says banned officials

    Crisis rocking the Labour movement in Ekiti State deepened on Monday as the state councils of the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress (TUC) imposed a ten-year ban on immediate past chairmen, Mr. Ayodeji Aluko and Mr. Kolawole Olaiya, from trade unionism.

    The ten-year ban was imposed on the duo for leading a protest and shutdown of the State Secretariat last Thursday in protest against the arrears of salaries owed workers by the state government.

    Acting on the auspices of Ekiti Workers Rescue Team, Aluko, Olaiya and other labour leaders declared an indefinite strike and passed a resolution dissolving NLC and TUC executives led by Mr. Ade Adesanmi and Mr. Odunayo Adesoye respectively.

    Rising from an emergency congress held at Labour House, Ado-Ekiti on Monday and attended by affiliate unions, the union leaders insisted that Aluko and Olaiya lacked powers to declare strike and dissolve excos of the unions having finished their terms.

    Addressing reporters at the end of the congress, NLC Chairman, Adesanmi, urged security agencies to call Aluko and Olaiya to order accusing the duo of working as agents of destabilization.

    Adesanmi said: “The illegal activities of the aforementioned ex-labour leaders acting under the guise of Ekiti Workers Rescue Team came to a climax on Thursday, August 23 when they gathered thugs and molested workers who were carrying out their legitimate and lawful duties.

    “There is need to ask them whose interest were they protecting, because they didn’t act when workers were owed over eight month salaries. They have never engaged the government to pay pensioners but they only woke up after the July 14 governorship election.

    “Sometimes ago, an administrative panel was set up by the outgoing government of Governor Ayodele Fayose against Comrade Aluko and found him guilty of participating in electioneering  in 2015, which was against public service rule. It was the same unions that intervened and ensured that he was pardoned.

    “It is no more news that Comrade Aluko was promoted to the position of Director of Administration at the local government ahead of his seniors and the government looked at this and reverted him to the rightful position. It was clear that this ex-labour leader is aggrieved. But must he hide under non-payment of salary to get at the government?

    “How could labour leaders gathered thugs and pronounced the entire labour structure dissolved. Were they State Executive Council of the labour unions? The two of them are not members of SEC, where now did they derive such powers.

    Read Also: Unpaid salaries: Ekiti labour leaders declare strike

    “With their actions of recent, it is clear that they were only clearing coast for political appointments from the incoming government and not fighting the interest of workers.

    “Following these, they are declared persona non grata in labour circle and they are banned from labour activities for a period of ten years”, he said.

    Reacting to the ban, Aluko maintained that Adesanmi and Adesoye have been proscribed from acting in their positions by workers, having failed to fight for the rights of those that voted them into their respective offices.

    Aluko said Adesoye’s tenure as TUC chairman had lapsed in July, saying he lacked the locus standi to preside over a meeting where any member will be suspended or barred.

    He said: “Can any labour leaders who has been described a persona non grata by the entire workforce preside over a meeting and suspend any member?

    “Two, is the fact that the two labour leaders (Adesanmi and Adesoye) have lost their values. They are enjoying the support of the government, so they can decide to take illegal actions pending the time another government will ascend the throne.

    “But let me say this, workers will send them out of the secretariats by the time this government leaves. TUC Chairman had served out his term, while that of NLC will end in February.

    “I want to assure Adesanmi that he will be the first NLC chairman that won’t complete his term in Ekiti. What he is doing is anti-labour and he shall pay dearly for it.”

  • Unpaid Salaries: Ekiti workers chased out of office

    There was confusion at Ekiti State Secretariat on Thursday when some labour leaders chased out workers and declared an indefinite strike action over unpaid salaries.

    The unionists who were followed by other workers also passed a resolution dissolving the state councils of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Joint Negotiating Council (JNC).

    Acting under the aegis of Ekiti Workers Rescue Team (EWRT), the protesting labour leaders and workers were led by the former Chairmen of NLC and TUC, Mr. Ayodeji Aluko and Mr. Kolawole Olaiya respectively.

    The placard-carrying protesters slammed the incumbent NLC Chairman, Mr. Ade Adesanmi and his TUC counterpart, Mr. Odunayo Adesoye, of compromising workers’ interest for personal benefits.

    They said owing core civil servants arrears six months, local government workers six months and pensioners eight months with no serious commitment to offset the backlog was “immoral, ungodly and unacceptable.”

    They observed a minute silence in honour of workers who died in the last four years owing to hardship unleashed on them over government’s failure to pay their salaries and other entitlements.

    Read Also: Ekiti is in pains

    Some of their placards read: “Fayose’s wicked government must go,” “Workers are eating from dustbin,” “Bread and butter unionism is counterproductive,” “Fake labour leaders must go,” “We are dying of hunger,” “It is strange for labour leaders to be defending government,” among others.

    Addressing workers during the protest, Aluko said it was wicked of the Fayose regime to pay six month salaries and furniture allowance to political office holders and refuse to offset arrears owed workers and pensioners.

    Aluko said: “Today, we are dissolving the executives of NLC and TUC in Ekiti and they stand dissolved, because their leaders, Ade Adesanmi and Odunayo Adesoye have lost their values. They are no longer talking about the welfare of the workers they were expected to defend.

    “We decided not to do this protest before election, so that they won’t read political meanings to it. Workers have died, just because they are not paid. In 2014, Governor Fayose said any governor who owed just a month salary because he is building infrastructure doesn’t worth being a governor.

    “Today, the governor owes pensioners ten months, LG workers eight months and civil servants and teachers are owed six months. We are not fighting Governor Fayose but he must pay the workers.

    “Shortly after the election, Fayose quickly paid six month salaries and furniture allowances of political office holders, then what becomes of our teeming workers?

    “It was sad that Adesanmi and Adesoye decided to give Fayemi three months moratorium to pay workers when assumed office, when they were practically doing nothing to ensure that Governor Fayose doesn’t leave office a debtor governor as he promised.

    “We hereby declare indefinite strike commencing from today and only the national secretariats of both TUC and NLC can negotiate on our behalf, because we no longer trust the State leaderships of the two congresses.

    “We regret to inform you that after a thorough consultation and proper reviewing of the decision of Ekiti workers’ congress to withdraw their services until all arrears are cleared.

    “EWRT hereby toe the line of the generality of workers and resolved as follows: that all workers in the civil and public service of Ekiti State should embark on indefinite strike = commencing today, Thursday, 23rd August, 2018 that there should be no skeletal services by any sector of the economy as the strike is termed total that under no circumstance should there be any business transaction in account, bursary and any other department relating to the treasury of Ekiti State. This will be strictly resisted by workers of Ekiti.”

  • Fayemi to opponents: declare your assets

    Fayemi to opponents: declare your assets

    Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi has challenged candidates in the governorship election to declare their assets and stop peddling lies that he owns a university somewhere.

    The governor spoke in Ado Ekiti at the 2014 May Day celebration.

    Fayemi said: “I am the first governor in this state who declared his assets publicly. No other governor in this state has ever voluntarily declared it. If you go to the internet, those who are on the internet, google the assets of Kayode Fayemi and his wife, what I own before I became governor I have not added one thing to it and I challenge and dare anybody to come out and bring information to Ekiti people that I own anything, including a block that I have added to my house either at Isan or Ibadan or anywhere else that I have house in the world.”

    On the alleged non-payment of pension, Fayemi said his government does not owe any pension but the purported debt is the arrears of pension owed the pensioner covering a period of 10 years, adding that it is not possible for government to clear the backlog of debt at once.

    The Chairmen of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), Mr Ayodeji Aluko and Mr Kolawole Olaiya, commended Fayemi for prioritising the welfare of the workers, saying that the present administration has increased salaries about three times.

    Olaiya called for a review of the Revenue Allocation formula saying that the upward review wOULD enable States have enough funds for meaningful development and make the State work for the people.

     

  • ‘Credible polls produce legitimate governments’

    ‘Credible polls produce legitimate governments’

    A Non-Government Organisation (NGO), Democracy Vanguard (DV), has said the legitimacy of governments is based on the credibility of elections.

    At a sensitisation workshop tagged: “One-man/woman-one-vote” and the public presentation of the Voter’s Handbook in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, DV National Coordinator Comrade Adeola Soetan said the process through which political office holders emerge “must be sanctified to endow it with the needful credibility status”.

    At the event were Ekiti State Chairman, Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Ayodeji Aluko; notable theatre practitioner Mr. Bayo Bankole; representative of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Mrs. Maureen Arinze; DV National Publicity Secretary Sina Odugbemi; State Chair, Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Bunmi Ajimoko and former National President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) Olusegun Mayegun.

    Speaking on “The diminished interest of the electorate in the exercise of voting”, Soetan said: “The only legitimate process for putting genuine representatives of the people in government is the election.

    “The electoral process, its freeness and fairness, is what gives government legitimacy and guarantees genuine representative democracy. Consequently, free, fair and credible election devoid of fraud, manipulation, violence and rigging is a condition precedent to genuine democracy and participatory government.

    “Voters should assert themselves with credible deployment of the power of their thumbs, as only this can remove unscrupulous politicians from the political space.

    He said DV is a non-partisan institution, which owes “allegiance to the electorate”.

    DV State Coordinator Miss Yetunde Fagbemigun said elections have continued to “fail” the people because the electorate have continuously shown a disappointing level of apathy and misplaced concern during voting, adding: “This is the reason DV has partnered the electorate to better their performance at elections, starting with the coming one.”

    INEC representative Mrs. Arinze said the conduct of politicians towards the 21 June governorship election would determine the credibility of the election.

    Speaking on: “Ekiti Election: Following the Rules of the Game”, Mayegun said: “INEC has been constitutionally empowered to conduct elections in Nigeria, but we have to admit that that (conducting elections) is possible only with the cooperation of all stakeholders, who include teachers, students, bankers, lawyers, traders, all segments and sections of the society.”

    Mayegun said electoral reform should include poverty alleviation, adding: “We cannot be speaking about reforming the electoral process if and when a large percentage of the people are unemployed.”