The Nigeria Labour Congress NLC, has refuted the allegation of attack by its President on civil servants who were said to be protesting over their contributory housing project.
Two local newspapers had reported that the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, had engaged in a physical fight with the Chairman of the NLC/TUC, Good Homes Subscribers Association, who had carried their protest to the NLC Headquarters in Abuja.
According to the publications, the inability of the NLC to deliver on their promise of houses for civil servants who had made contributions under the NLC/TUC Good Homes Scheme which dates back to about ten years ago brought about the incidence.
However, in a rebuttal the NLC Head, Information and Public Affairs Mr Benson Upah described the publications as false.
He said “it is unfortunate that miscreants posing as workers’ representatives decided to spin a false narrative and present same to the public as true.
“The truth is that the headquarters of the NLC on 18th January 2023 came under a heavy attack by hoodlums sponsored and led by one Mr Emeka Anuna who poses as Chairman of the FGN/FCT/NLC/TUC Mass Housing Project Subscribers Association.”
Upah said the arrival of the NLC President at the NLC headquarters led to an altercation between the protesters and some staff.
Mr Benson Upah explained that the reason for engaging Mr Emeka Anuna was because the NLC as an organisation that fights for the interest of workers and the masses believes in the sanctity of protest and would always be willing to engage in any peaceful protest.
Throwing more light on the issue at stake, the spokesperson of the NLC, said that the FGN/FCT/NLC/TUC/ Mass Housing Project of 2014 “is a project that is dear to the heart of NLC and TUC leaderships that has elicited very proactive, progressive, and sustained actions by the leadership of the Congress led by Mr Ayuba Wabba to ensure timely delivery of the project”.
He also noted that Congress had written a series of letters and strong representations to the Minister of the FCTA, who obliged their demand to visit the project site and assess the state of work.
“Following the visit of the Minister, Mallam Mohammed Bello and subsequent meetings between the NLC, TUC, the Subscribers Association, and the Project Developer – Good Homes Limited, the Permanent Secretary of the FCTA was appointed to Chair a resolution Committee with the mandate to resolve all the issues pertaining to the project.
“This Committee has met several times and has made some progress towards addressing the encumbrances by the developer which has militated against the project”, Mr Upah explained.
Upah said that the congress had responded to the attack by Mr Emeka Anuna with a petition to the Nigeria Police Force, FCT Command.
The NLC also called on the management of the local newspapers to retract the story within seven days.
Peaceful protest
Speaking to VON exclusively, Mr Anuna insisted that the protest was a peaceful one having protested the same day at the residence of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory without any incident.
“We are just coming from the Minister’s residence where we carried out a protest on the same issue.
“It was from the Minister’s house we went to the Labour House where we were told that the NLC President was not in the office, somebody wanted to talk to us, we said no, it is the President or Secretary we want”.
He said they had finished at Labour house, however, with the arrival of the Labour president, the altercation started.
On why they resorted to protest to drive home their demand, Mr Anuna said that his association exhausted every avenue for dialogue both at the NLC and the FCT Minister’s offices.
He said that the subscribers have made different financial commitments to the project via borrowing from banks adding that even though non of them have received keys to their houses, they are already repaying the bank loans while some have died without benefiting from the project.
“See, the NLC President has less than a month to leave office and this matter is still pending, that is why we had to take the only available option left for us to get our message passed to the relevant authorities” Mr Anuna said.
Emmanuel Ukoh
