The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) Edo state council has refuted a statement attributed to Mr. Odom Olaye, who claimed a few days ago that he was still the legitimate chairman of the NLC in the state.
In response to Olaye’s claim, Comrade Bernard Egwekhide, the Acting State Chairman of the Congress, stated that 34 out of 37 affiliate unions, including Olaye’s union, the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), moved a vote of no confidence at the state executive meeting held at the labor secretariat in the state.
He claimed that Oaye has been hiding in Abuja for more than three months and that “he has not been in the state, nor does he have the constitutional powers to call a state Administrative Council meeting not to talk of an Executive Council meeting to address any issues relating to workers welfare in the state.”
He said that the NLC leadership under him had finished negotiations with the state government on the domestication of the 70,000 naira minimum wage and that “a committee is in place as we speak to fine tune the final documents that will form the template for the new salary scale in the state.” He claimed that Oaye had compromised the union’s integrity with the type of relationship he had with the political class in the past past who he said attempted to derail the labour movement in the state.
He said the “Edo State Chapter of the Nigerian labour Congress has since moved on and have a new executive who are saddled with the responsibility to move the workers in Edo to the next level and the rightful position amongst other workers country wide.”
“For the purpose of clarity, Mr olaye should desist from parading himself as Edo NLC Chairman as his actions is deceitful and capable of causing breach of public peace, And the state congress is also using this medium to call on the national leadership of the NLC to be objective in their dealings and not to be lopsided because of pecuniary gains.”
