Government activities were paralysed in Abia State Wednesday as workers in the state joined in the indefinite strike called by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to protest the hike in pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).

The Federal Government, in a move to deregulate the oil sector, announced that it has totally removed fuel subsidy but charged importers of PMS not to sell the product beyond N145 per litre.

The NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) rejected the hike in the pump price of PMS, citing its harsh effect on workers and the masses. Labour therefore served notice that they would shut down government by midnight of last Tuesday if government failed to revert to the pump price of N86.50 per litre of PMS at the expiration of its 72-hour ultimatum

However, the Federal Government, in a move to stave off the impending strike, engaged Labour in negotiations between last Monday and Tuesday but no agreement was reached. To worsen matters, the federal government, through the Attorney-General of the Federation, obtained an injunction from the Industrial Court restraining Labour from embarking on its proposed strike. Irked by the development, Labour backed out of the meeting with the federal government and enjoined its members to shun the court order and proceed on the indefinite strike action from Wednesday.

In Abia State, the strike recorded about 90 per cent compliance as workers refused to come work while the state secraitariat at Ogurube Layout, Umuahia remained shut. The gates of Umuahia North and South local governments were equally under lock, so were the Umuahia High Court Complex as well as schools and parastatals. Some schools which opened earlier dismissed students at about 9:30 am.

A student of a girls secondary school in the capital city who was seen going home in company of others revealed that the students were sent home by their teachers who told them that they (teachers) were on strike.

A female civil servant said they were in support of Labour’s effort to get the federal government to improve the welfare of the workers, describing the hike in petrol pump price as a display of insensitivity towards the plight of Nigerians who were groaning under severe economic conditions.

A member of the team set up by Labour in Abia to monitor compliance, Comrade Promise Onwukwe, who is the state Secretary of the Parliamentary Workers Association, expressed happiness with the level of compliance by workers in the state.

“I am very happy that the strike in the state has recorded over 90 per cent compliance,” Onwukwe told newsmen at the state secretariat, explaining that they were in the area to ensure that workers obeyed the NLC directive.

Comrades Uchenna Obigwe and John Onaga, Abia NLC chairman and Secretary, respectively, had through a Memo dated May 16, 2016, conveyed to Abia workers , the directive of its national secretariat to embark on strike on May 18, 2016 and pleaded with the workers to comply in order to make the strike record “total success” in the state.

Obigwe in a telephone interview Wednesday, said that the strike was not connected with Labour’s demand for new minimum wage but to protest the high in pump price of PMS and electricity tariff which were impacting negatively on the Nigerian worker.

•Photo shows Abia Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.

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