Fuel price hike: Bloody clash averted between labour, Buhari supporters in Abuja

By Our Correspondents

A bloody clash was averted yesterday in Abuja as the labour protest over the fuel price hike entered the second day.
The strike, which had a shaky start Wednesday witnessed a procession led by the National President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, from Julius Berger Roundabout to Area 1, Garki Roundabout. The march lasted over one hour.
While a team of policemen escorted the protesters, there was also heavy security under the Area 1 bridge even before the protesters arrived. The large number of security operatives was ostensibly to avoid miscreants from hijacking the protest.
However, it took the timely intervention of a combined team of security agencies to avert a clash between labour protesters and a horde of youth, who besieged the Urban Mass Transit Garage, waving brooms and chanting pro-Buhari slogans.
The security agents had hectic time dissuading the youths from invading the arena where the NLC leaders and civil society activists addressed a crowd. They shouted slogans in Hausa like, “Sai Buhari” and ‘NLC Karyansu karyane’, translating to “NLC, it’s a lie” in a bid to drown the speeches by labour leaders. Leaders of the youths, who were becoming unruly, were seen appealing to them to avoid confrontation.
Spokesman of the youths, some of whom were identified to have come out from the Durumi camp of internally displaced persons, Mr. Abubakar Adamu Guduf (a.k.a Habu Gollige), told Daily Sun that they mobilised support for the government of President Muhammadu Buhari because Labour did not protest against the activities of the Boko Haram terrorists while insurgency ravaged the North East.
He said that normalcy has returned to the region and some of them cannot return to their respective homes because of President Buhari’s determination to root out insurgency.

•Ebonyi: Police, NLC clash
In Ebonyi State, there were claims and counter claims between men of the Police and NLC over alleged  attack by operatives of Ebonyi State police command  on workers on peaceful protests along old Enugu-Abakaliki expressway. But the Commissioner of Police in the state, Peace Ibekwe Abdallah, said police only dispersed them for “gathering unlawfully” and never attacked them.

•Anambra: Schools shutdown, markets, banks remained open in Onitsha
Public and Private schools in Onitsha were forced to close yesterday to comply with the on going strike action embarked upon by labour union.
However, markets and banks opened for business in Onitsha.

•Enugu: Partial compliance as schools shutdown
In Enugu, public schools were forced to shutdown yesterday as the NLC in the state attempted to enforce compliance with the strike.
Students and pupils from various public schools in the state capital were seen trekking home in droves at about 9:am yesterday morning.
The compliance has however remained partial as courts and some ministries went about their normal duties.

•Zamfara: NLC, APC issue counter orders to worker
In Zamfara, chairman of the state chapter NLC, Comrade Bashir Marafa advised workers in the state to remain at home until further notice despite threat from those it described as saboteurs and sycophants.
However, a chieftain of All Progressive Congress (APC) in the state, Alhaji Sani Gwamina,  appealed to NLC to see reason with the federal government over the removal of subsidy on petroleum product.

•Kano: NLC, CSOs protest
In Kano, unlike the first day of the strike, Daily Sun investigations showed that several institutions and organisations were closed in the state yesterday as a sizable number of unions, under the charge of NLC, finally joined the nationwide protest,  shutting out workers from their respective offices.
Further checks showed that teachers in the public primary schools, health workers in some hospitals, staffers of banks and insurance firms, including civil servants at the Audu Bako (state) secretariat were absent from their duty posts as at midday.

•Imo: Banks join strike in Owerri
In Imo State, most customers who went to the banks yesterday as early as a 8am met the gates closed as commercial banks in the State capital finally joined the Labour strike.
Although, fuel stations were open for business, there were fewer vehicles on the roads as most residents remained indoors.

•Edo: Workers shun NLC strike order
Workers in Edo State public service resumed work at their duty posts in defiance of the NLC strike order which entered its second day yesterday.
In Benin, workers were seen at work in various offices yesterday, even as banks opened for business.
Earlier yesterday,chairman of the state NLC, Emmanuel Ademokun, had led some factions of Labour leaders in the state to walk through two major streets in protest of the fuel price increase.

•Kaduna: No compliance in Kaduna, Zaria
In Kaduna, there was no noticeable compliance with the strike yesterday as people went about their normal businesses.
Government and private offices were open for usual business transactions, although people were apprehensive of the reaction from the organised labour and the government.
Similarly, workers in Zaria, an academic environment with more than 100 public and private institutions shunned the strike order as no academic institution had, so far, closed as at the time of filling this report yesterday. Groups  of volunteers, had on Monday, staged a peaceful rally in Zaria in support of President Muhammadu Buhari’s policies, including the removal of fuel subsidy .

•Katsina: Workers continue to shun strike
Workers in Katsina, yesterday, continued to shun the strike order by NLC as they all reported at their duty posts.
The Katsina State civil service secretariat was full of activities as a cross section of civil servants interviewed said they were not ready to join the strike.

•Ondo: Roads turned to football pitches as workers join strike
In Akure, the Ondo State capital, the strike entered the third day, with heaps of refuse mounting on major roads and streets.
The ever clean Akure streets, particularly, the popular Erekesan and Oja Oba markets were littered with refuse heaps.
Expectedly, gates of the State’s civil service secretariat, located at Alagbaka area of the city were locked while many portions of the roads were turned to football pitches for several hours.
However, labour leaders, who monitored the protest in the state dispersed at about 2:30pm and retired to the NLC secretariat, Alagbaka to assess the situation.