By Special Correspondent
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have defied a national Industrial Court order to carry out the nation-wide strike planned for tomorrow, November 14.
247 learned that the leading trade union representatives declared this on Monday.
Following an ex-parte application filed by the Federal Government (FG), the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), and Minister of Justice Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, Justice Benedict Bakwaph Kanyip, the head of the court, had prevented the labour unions from carrying out their planned industrial action on November 14.
The sources, however, confirmed that the FG has not yet contacted the labour unions concerning the planned strike and that the court ruling would not prevent the strike despite the subsisting order.
In his words, “We are inside a criminal enterprise that cannot continue, so our struggle continues. People will wake up if we are removed in the process; the world has become a global community.
“We are yet to receive any invitation from the FG, they think it will be like before, where we are invited late and they will ask that we shelve the strike and agree to sign any Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) so we don’t embark on the strike, this time will be different”.
When contacted NLC Secretary General Emmanuel Ugboaja told reporters that the National Executive Council would meet today to discuss the potential of a strike tomorrow.
Ugboaja, on the other hand, stated that the strike was still in effect based on the announcement issued at the previous NEC meeting on November 7 until it is called off by the NEC.
Further, he said, “The current NEC decision is that the strike starts at midnight today, but at the NEC meeting today, we will decide the way forward”.
It would be recalled that the cause for the NLC’s strike remains the FG’s refusal to accept the union’s demand following the assault on NLC President Joe Ajaero in Imo State.
