Kano State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has defied the directive by NLC’s national leadership to suspend the nationwide strike over fuel subsidy removal by the federal government, saying they will not return to work until the fuel price is reversed to the old rate of N65 per litre.
Addressing a press conference in Kano yesterday over the strike suspension under the auspices of NLC/TUC/JAF Committee for the Kano Struggle, chairman of the state NLC chapter Comrade Isa Yunusa Danguguwa said the mandate given the NLC’s national leadership by the National Executive Committee of the congress was “grossly violated.” He said the mandate was that the labour leaders should make federal government to restore the subsidy first to open a window of negotiation, saying Kano people must know what necessitated the NLC national leadership to suspend the strike without first reporting back to the National Executive Committee of the congress on what had transpired between it and the federal government.
He said the struggle is beyond the NLC and TUC and so the views of Nigerians must be respected. The message of Kano people, according to him, is still: “No to withdrawal of fuel subsidy, no to fuel price increase.”
Kano, according to Danguguwa, will continue to protest and demonstrate peacefully on the streets and that no amount of propaganda will stop them.
“Even if the national leadership of NLC will not continue with the struggle, we will remove NLC T-shirts and caps to join the good people of Kano to carry on with the struggle. We will continue to fight; we shall remain peaceful in our action”, he said.
However, there was a mild drama soon after the press conference when chairman of Kano chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Isa Yunusa Danguguwa escaped being arrested by plain cloth security operatives who laid ambush for him around the venue of the briefing at the Old Campus of Bayero University, Kano.
No sooner the chairman came out of the venue after the briefing than the security operatives swooped on him. He was able to escape from their hands when lecturers, students and many NLC members around immediately came to his rescue by over-powering the security personnel.
It was learnt that when it was clear to the security operatives that the surging crowd would descend on them they quickly took to their heels.
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