Kaduna state governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has ordered immediate sack of nurses, university lecturers and other workers who did not report for work or joined the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) strike.
In a statement by his Senior Adviser on Media and Communications, Muyiwa Adekeye, the state governor said three allegedly disconnected the oxygen supply of a two-month-old baby in an incubator on Monday.
The statement reads partly as follows: “KDSG will not tolerate criminal acts disguised as industrial action
“Today, the Kaduna State Government reviewed the sundry criminal actions that have defined the campaign of economic and social sabotage and lawlessness waged by the NLC.
“KDSG considers as unacceptable the serial violations of the Miscellaneous Offences Act and the Trade Union Act that have occurred over the last two days. The state government commends citizens for remaining calm amidst this assault on their rights and comfort and their businesses.
“However, KDSG cannot be expected to tolerate the brazen shutdown of electricity, attack on public infrastructure and buildings, locking up hospitals and forcefully discharging patients, unlawful trespass into public facilities and the wanton use of coercion and restraints of personal freedom by the NLC.
“Efforts to dress up criminal activity as industrial action do not change the reality of the lawbreaking that has unfolded, including their persistently ignoring the prohibition against impeding essential services. Also, KDSG cannot ignore the illegal pressures brought to disrupt the operations of banks and other private businesses whose staff and customers do not have any industrial dispute with the state or any other government,” Adekeye said.
Meanwhile, earlier in the day, governor El-Rufai declared the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba and other labour leaders in the state for allegedly committing economic sabotage in the state.
He said the state government will not be hoodwinked into cheap blackmail, adding that its decision remains unchanged.
