There was confusion at the Ekiti State secretariat, on Thursday, as former labour leaders in the state took the roles of the current officers by literally chasing workers out of their offices to begin indefinite strike.
A former chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the state, Mr Ayodeji Aluko, and his former counterpart in the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Mr Kolawole Olaiya, led the action and had ordered workers to shut down and commence indefinite strike action.
The duo accused the state government of deceit in what they said was its plan to pay outstanding salaries being owed the workers in the state, claiming that the government was not genuinely willing to pay the workers.
They had led people the state government described as “hoodlums and thugs” to the state secretariat and the Civil Service Commission to prevent the government’s ongoing recruitment exercise and had allegedly manhandled some senior civil servants.
The state government described the action as “despicable”, saying “the action of Olaiya and Aluko shows the kind of people they are and what they intend to foist on Ekiti people.”
Speaking on behalf of the state government, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, said “Olaiya has retired from service while Aluko is not part of the current Executive of any of the labour centres in the state. So, we wonder what their actual intentions are and what they intend to achieve with this despicable act.”
Adelusi said “the people being employed are Ekiti people; the government has a duty to recruit to fill vacant positions in the state Civil Service and we fail to understand the reason why retired workers will organise hoodlums to disrupt legitimate activities of government in the state.”