• Anambra workers chased out of offices
Nigeria Labour Congress’ (NLC) warning strike, yesterday, partially paralysed commercial activities within the Enugu metropolis.
Although federal and state secretariats were open, some workers stayed away, even as the courtrooms were under lock and key.
Commercial banks opened much later in the day for business activities.
Recall that the NLC had earlier announced a two-day warning strike over biting hardships, following the removal of fuel subsidy, among other unfavourable economic factors.
Speaking on a court premises in Enugu, a resident, Mrs Chika Ugwu, said that the strike affected her case billed for hearing yesterday.
She said: “My case has suffered undue adjournments due to strike actions for three months now.”
Another resident, Mr Ejike Onyeama, urged the NLC to push harder for a better response of government to the plight of Nigerian workers and the ordinary man on the street.
Workers in Abia State, yesterday, closed their offices in compliance with the two-day warning strike. Many offices, ministries and banks did not open for business. There was power outage as the offices of the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company in Umuahia were locked.
State NLC acting Chairman, Paschal Nweke, who confirmed the development, said some offices that opened were forced to close by the NLC monitoring team. FEW workers in Anambra State, forced to disobey the two-day warning strike, were, yesterday, chased out of their duty posts by the NLC task force.
Findings by The Guardian revealed that the workers were informed about the breakdown in negotiation between the Federal Government and representatives of the Congress and the decision to embark on the strike effective yesterday.
It was learnt that few workers were cowed into coming to work with the re-introduced daily duty arrival clock-in, but they had barely settled down when the Labour task force drove them away with canes.
A worker, who spoke to The Guardian, on condition of anonymity at the Jerome Udoji Secretariat, Awka, said she was happy that the state government witnessed their eviction from office.
