Labour plans protest over pension scam

Nigeria Labour Congress has vowed to mobilise workers across the country to embark on a protest march on the Presidential Villa and state Government Houses over the theft of billions of naira meant for pensioners in the country.

President of the NLC, Mr. Abdulwahed Omar, and the acting General Secretary of the Congress, Mr. Chris Uyot, said workers would also be mobilised to march to the seats of power in the 36 states across the country.

According to the NLC helmsmen, the nationwide protest march is scheduled to hold on April 10, 2013.

Omar said NLC had also given a directive to all affiliate unions, state councils, friends and allies of the labour movement to commence immediate mobilisation for the protests.

The threat by the NLC to organise the protests to the seats of governments across the country was contained in a communiqué issued after a meeting of the National Committee of the congress in Abuja, which was sent to our correspondent on Thursday.

The communique said the meeting was held to deliberate on “the growing level of corruption and crisis in the Pension Industry.”

They said the NLC was opting for the protest to ensure that billions of naira being owed pensioners were paid to them.

NLC said it had written two letters to the Presidency to intervene in the crisis involving the administration of the pension funds in the country but without any response.

 The communiqué also stated that NLC had exploited other channels of  communication to reach the Presidency on the issue but without success.

Both Omar and Uyot noted in the communique that the leadership of the Congress had to adopt the available option of mobilising workers to seek justice for the deprived pensioners, after exhausting all lawful options to call government attention to their plights.

The communique read in part, “The Central Working Committee, after an exhaustive deliberation, noted that the Congress had written, at least, two letters to the Presidency, calling for its intervention in the pension crisis. In addition to the correspondence, the leadership of congress had reached out through other channels to the Federal Government.

“The Congress leadership had also made public pronouncements on the avoidable, but painful pension crisis. “Convinced that the Congress had exploited all the lawful channels of communication to the government to no avail, the CWC resolved as follow:

“That on Wednesday April 10, 2013, all NLC affiliate unions and State councils across the length and breadth of the country will mobilise workers on a protest march to the Presidency and state Government Houses.

“In pursuance of this objective, the CWC directed NLC affiliate unions, state councils, friends and allies of organised labour to immediately commence mobilisation for the action.”

PUNCH