By Rotimi Ojomoyela
Concerned Trade Unions in Ekiti State, comprising
artisans and commercial drivers , Tuesday held
an anti-workers rally in Ado-Ekiti, describing the
ongoing strike declared by labour unions to press
home for the payment of myriad of outstanding benefits as politically motivated. They also accused the leadership of labour of
taking N25 million bribe to destabilize the Ayo
Fayose-led government . The protesters led by the Chairmen of Road
Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria,
Com. Samuel Agbede and National Union of Road
Transport Workers, Com Clement Adekola,
paraded placards of various inscriptions, massed
at the popular Fajuyi Park and marched to Ijigbo to shore up supports for Fayose’s government. While speaking with newsmen, the RTEAN
Chairman said the workers industrial came at the
wrong time, saying he expected the labour
leaders to take a cue from Ondo , Oyo , Benue
and Osun States, who are owing more than five
months salaries without the workers going on strike. In his words, “the workers cannot afford to
paralyse the state because Governor Fayose has
demonstrated transparency in the distribution of
federal allocations accruing to Ekiti. The labour
leaders were part of the negotiation that agreed
that two month allocations should be lumped up to pay one month salary. “But as we speak now, two months allocations
can’t even pay one month salary. The governor
used March and April allocations to pay for
December and where do they expect him to get
money to pay full salary of about N2.6 billion
monthly now? “We expect them to show understanding . But
we are beginning to see that this strike has
political undertone”, he alleged. He berated the labour unions for asking Fayose
to spend the internally generated revenue to pay
workers’ salary together with federal
allocations, urging them to desist from arrogating
the state to workers alone.

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