The Nation Newspaper

Tag: plotting

  • NLC accuses govt of plotting to disintegrate labour

    THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has reported the Federal Government to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) over alleged backdoor plans to proscribe the congress and undermine collective labour relations.

    Its President and representative of workers on the ILO Governing Board Comrade Ayuba Wabba told the Committee on Application of Standard that the government has forwarded a new bill to the National Assembly, which will distort the nation’s industrial relations landscape.

    The NLC also reported the Kaduna and Kogi states to the world labour body over total disregard for the principle of collective bargaining, which constitutes violations of ILO Convention 98 for sacking workers indiscriminately and refusal to pay salary of workers.

    Wabba told the committee, which meets to review industrial relations in member countries that part of the bill sent to the nation’s parliament seek to proscribe the NLC, if it fail to amend its constitution to conform to the bill two years after being passed into law.

    He said: “A new version of the Collective Labour Relations Bill is not a product of consultation and largely different from the one we have made inputs to some years ago. Strangely, this new version was to be surreptitiously passed into law, but for our vigilance and the candour of the parliament to undertake due diligence.

    “Evidence of our claim that the intentions of the amendment were to undermine trade unions and unnecessarily distort our industrial relations landscape and temperature can be seen in one of the portions of this new bill which says “if after two years of commencement of the application of this Act, and the Nigeria Labour Congress has not amended her constitution to conform to this Act, it shall stand proscribed”.

    He added that “the mention of the name of our organisation in a draft proposal for amendment betrayed the undisguised malicious intention of the amendment”.

    The NLC President maintained that “interference in collective negotiation process in the private sector has been a cause of worry to the committee since 2009. The government continues to claim that sectorial collective bargaining agreement must have its blessing before it becomes implementable so that there is no ‘undue economic disruption’ and so it has benchmarks for wages. This clearly contradicts Article 4 of this Convention for which the committee has sharply pointed in this report being discussed by this conference committee.”

     

     

     

  • Pharmacist arrested for ‘plotting’ boss’ kidnap

    A pharmacist, identified simply as Emeka, has been arrested by the police for allegedly masterminding the kidnap of his boss, Donatus Duru.

    Duru, owner of a pharmaceutical company at Ilupeju, was kidnapped in February by a group which refused to release him even after collecting a N150million ransom.

    The Evans Gang, it was gathered, demanded one million Euros as ransom or he would be killed.

    Since the payment of the N150 million, his family has been begging for his release to no avail.

    But on Friday, Duru reportedly came from his kidnappers in Igando and ran to the police.

    Before his escape, policemen attached to the Anti-Kidnapping Unit and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Intelligence Response Team (IRT) had been combing the creeks for him.

    He was said to have described the Igando den to policemen, who stormed the place and arrested two members of the gang last Saturday.

    The operatives also rescued a Caucasian man chained to a pole and recovered four AK47 rifles, two English made pistols, 60 magazines and about 60,000 live ammunition.

    A police source said the victim claimed he overheard Emeka’s voice in the den few days after he was kidnapped.

    He said: “The victim said that few days after he was kidnapped, he overheard the voice of pharmacist Emeka, who has been under his employ for long, discussing with his kidnappers in an adjoining room. He said he heard him asking members of the gang keeping watch over him whether they had contacted members of his family.

    “Subsequently, he kept on coming and giving directives to those keeping watch over him where he was chained on the leg and blindfolded inside one of the rooms in a flat.

    ” A few days before his escape, the victim said Emeka came and re-assured them that he had signed all the documents for the release of goods worth about N7million from his warehouse and also came the next day, Thursday to boldly question why they had not killed him as agreed.

    “He reportedly left after he was assured that they would carry out the killing by next Friday. At this stage, the victim said he gave up hope of freedom and was waiting for his death sentence to be carried out.

    “However, early that Friday morning, he was able to unchain himself while his captors were deeply asleep with their guns. He escaped through the back door, landing in the next compound, where a security guard jumped at him and branded him a thief.

    “He said that after narrating his story to the guard, he told him to wait but he did not see him again after waiting for a long time. Later, he sneaked out of the compound and hid in an obscure corner as he was unable to go further because of the sprain he had on the leg after jumping down from the high fence wall.

    “Around 5am, he saw some passersby and ran out to narrate his plight to them, pleading that they help him.  But, the people turned around to accuse him of being a thief and nearly succeeded in lynching him save for the intervention of one of them, who after listening to his story, insisted that they should call any of his relations for confirmation.

    “Luckily, they did and later took the badly wounded victim to Igando Police Station.”

    But another source claimed that Duru had gone into hiding for fear that the fleeing gang members may come after him and his family.

    The source claimed that the police failed to take the man into protective custody.

    It could not be ascertained if the kidnappers’ hideout had been sealed off and the building owner identified.

    Police Commissioner Fatai Owoseni confirmed the arrest of the two suspects, describing their arrest as “a huge success in crime busting”.

    He said: “The Evans Gang has been on the wanted list of many police commands for the kidnap of high profile Nigerians. They have engaged in a lot of atrocities, and so, it was a good one that two of the members were caught. We didn’t get Evans but he would be gotten soon.”

  • PDP accuses APC of plotting to blackmail Fayose

    PDP accuses APC of plotting to blackmail Fayose

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of plotting to blackmail Governor Ayo Fayose on what it called “the struggle for ministerial slot”.

    The party, in a statement yesterday by its spokesman, Jackson Adebayo, claimed the APC members alleged that “an APC group, which believes that its leader has been shortchanged in the screening exercise carried out by the Department of State Security, is attacking other leaders not in their group and blaming the governor for it”.

    According to the PDP spokesman, the group, which was alleged to have instigated last week’s police invitation  of the former Governor of the old Ondo State, Evangelist Bamidele Olumilua, had held meetings in Ado Ekiti where further attacks on some of the APC leaders in the state were hatched.

    Adebayo said it was also at the meetings that it was decided that after the attacks, their media team should go to the press to blame Governor Fayose for it.

    Adebayo said: “We are constrained to raise this alert now because this is not the first time that the APC will be fomenting trouble and fighting dirty only to blame Governor Fayose or the PDP for it.”

    But the APC Secretary, Paul Omotoso, advised the ruling party to stop ridiculing itself before the people with infantile statements which stand logic on the head.

    Omotoso said the alleged struggle for ministerial slot only exists in the “wild imagination” of the PDP which he said had been overwhelmed by challenges of governance and is now chasing shadows.

    He said: “Everybody knows that the PDP thrives on blackmail and it only accuses opponents of what it is planning to do. The so-called struggle for ministerial appointments only exists in the PDP’s imagination.

    “The PDP having failed Ekiti people with its shambolic and woeful performance is now resorting to false allegations. The PDP is not concerned with how a minister is nominated in an APC-led government, it has had its time in power and Nigerians know how their ministers plunged Nigeria into a deep mess our party is now clearing.

    “It is only a party that lacks idea, a party that is idle and bereft of ideas that will be churning out lies and falsehood and this is a result of their frustration in justifying its stolen mandate.”

  • Wike: God’ll disgrace those plotting against my govt

    Wike: God’ll disgrace those plotting against my govt

    Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has said God will disgrace those planning to truncate his administration.

    He said his administration had confounded those who claimed that building roads cannot happen during rainy season.

    Addressing worshippers yesterday at Lord’s Chosen Renewal Charismatic Ministry in Port Harcourt, the state capital, Wike said his victory at the poll was ordained by God and made possible by the prayers of clerics, including those at the Lord’s Chosen.

    The crusade was attended by the General Overseer of the Lord’s Chosen Renewal Charismatic Ministry, Pastor Lazarus Mouka.

    Wike said: “Those who are fighting and plotting to truncate the lifespan of the mandate freely given to me by the people of Rivers State will be disgraced by the God of the Lord’s Chosen.

    “The way the God of the Lord’s Chosen did it on April 11, that is how he will do it again.”

    The governor recalled that it was at the Lord’s Chosen Renewal Charismatic Ministry’s Rivers State headquarters he promised that if it was true that he was a cult member, he should not win the election.

    According to him, he won the election because the rumour was false.

    Also, Wike directed the repair of the road to the Rivers State headquarters of the Lord’s Chosen Renewal Charismatic Ministry.

    The governor also directed the interlocking of the church premises, in line with his promise to the church during his election campaigns.

    He said both projects would be completed before September 7.

    Wike assured that the building of the roads and other projects would be sustained by his administration, despite the rains.

    The governor said the essence of governance is to address the challenges of development the people face, adding that his administration was committed to achieving.

    Pastor Mouka prayed God for Wike to have a successful tenure.

    He also prayed for the governor’s protection and officials of his administration and other residents of the state.