BANKS SHUT AS LABOUR UNIONS PROTEST IN EBONYI

REPORTER: AMECHI ODO

Workers in Ebonyi State have marched on the streets of Abakaliki to demand immediate reversal of high cost Premium Motor Spirit, saying it has brought untold hardship to Nigerians.

Led by the leadership of the organised labour, the protesting workers carried placards with various inscriptions to capture their mood.

Heavily guarded by the operatives of the Nigeria Police to prevent infiltrations by hoodlums, the workers marched from Pa Ngele Oruta Stadium to Udensi round about where the labour leaders addressed them.

The Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), in Ebonyi State, Professor Ogugua Egwu, lamented that Nigerian workers could no longer breathe as a result of hash economic policies by the ruling class.

The State Chairman, Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Chidi Igboji, described the subsidy removal without immediate palliatives and commensurate salary increment for workers as anti-people, emphasizing that it had destroyed the purchasing power of ordinary Nigerians.

Some of the protesting workers, including Miss Jessica Nwokeke and Professor Fidelis Okpata, said they found it difficult to go to work and appealed to President Bola Tinubu to fix refineries and reduce economic hardship they were facing.

Radio Nigeria observed that commercial banks in Abakaliki metropolis did not open for business as a result of the protest by the organised labour.

EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE MADU