By USMAN ALIYU

CLAIM: A post on X (formerly Twitter) by one Ayofe on March 26, claimed that the Federal Government has agreed on N155,000 minimum wage with the Nigeria Labour Union (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC).

The X user said both the NLC and TUC leaders had thanked all the members involved in the negotiations during a press conference.

“BREAKING NEWS:-

The Federal Government has agreed on 155k as the new national minimum wage the NLC & TUC chairmen respectively thanked all the members involved in the negotiations in a press conference and urged the Federal Government and state governments to implement the minimum wage as earlier agreed on more details shortly…,’ claimed Ayofe in the post.

As of March 28, more than 200,000 other users have viewed the post with 301 retweets. Similarly, the post has garnered 414 comments with over 1000 likes and 62 bookmarks.

This post has been generating mixed reactions from other X users with many believing the story while others expressed doubt.

The same claim is also being circulated on WhatsApp and credited to the Punch Newspaper.

VERIFICATION: Checks by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reveals that an accord is yet to be reached amongst the 37-man Tripartite Committee for the implementation of a new minimum wage.

The committee according to the release of the Federal Government comprised representatives of the Federal and State Governments, Employers as well as the Labour.

More so, there has not been any press statement issued by any of the parties involved in the negotiations or a news report from any credible news platform on the purported agreement.

Speaking with the Head of Information, NLC, Mr Benson Upah, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that he was not aware of such development.

Similarly, the Deputy President I, TUC, Dr. Tommy Okon, said the social media user, who posted the claim was only being sensational.

Okon said as a leader in the TUC, he was not aware of such an agreement.

“Maybe they agree with their own union (social media user), because for us, there is nothing like that.

“There is nothing like that at all. I am not surprised because social media (users) can decide to write anything and send it because there is no censorship.

“It is garbage in, garbage out; they can put anything, but it is unfortunate that we are still spreading false information.

“That is not true; it is mischievous. We have not even started negotiating with the government on the minimum wage.

“Let them not mislead the public,” said the TUC deputy president.

Also when a search was conducted on the site of the newspaper, such report was not found on the news site.

VERDICT: The claim that the Federal Government has agreed on N155,000 as new minimum wage with the leadership of the organised labour is FALSE. While a tripartite committee including the representatives of the governments, labour and the employers, has been inaugurated for negotiations, no agreement is yet to be reached. (NAN)

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