ORGANISED LABOUR IN ANAMBRA DEMAND N200,000 MINIMUM WAGE

REPORTER: IFEANYI CHINWUKO

Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC) and its Trade Union Congress (TUC) counterpart have demanded the immediate implementation of N200,000 (two hundred thousand Naira) minimum wage for Nigerian workers from the Federal Government.

They made the demand during a nation wide protest match in Awka, the Anambra State capital, to drive home their demand.

Addressing a news conference after the protest march, the TUC Chairman in Anambra State, Comrade Chris Ogbonna, said the union was demanding immediate upward review of the minimum wage to N200,000 for Nigerian workers to enable them to face the current economic realities.

For his part, the NLC Chairman in the state, Comrade Emeka Nwafor, noted that the current economic situation in the country, occasioned by the removal of petrol subsidy, had hit hard many families in Nigeria.

Comrade Nwafor bemoaned the delay by the government in rolling out palliatives to cushion the debilitating effects of petrol subsidy removal on the citizens.

The NLC Chairman further stressed that the present cost of transportation was unbearable for Nigerian workers alongside millions of other citizens of the country.

Lending his voice, the State Chairman of Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees, (NULGE), Comrade Chikwelu Adigwe, called on Federal Government to urgently revive the local refineries in Nigeria to help bring down the cost of petroleum products in the country.

Radio Nigeria observed that protest march began from Dr. Alex Ekwueme Square in Awka and ended at the NULGE headquarters with security agencies fully stationed to ensure a peaceful protest.

EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE MADU