…Backs Labour’s opposition
A group of lawyers under the aegis of The International Lawyers Assisting Workers, (ILAW), has called on all its members across the country to mobilise to Kaduna to render services as may be required by circumstances to the sacked workers in Kaduna State who were hitherto employed by the State government.
The group expressed its total support for the protest by the Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC), in Kaduna State, which started today.
The ILAW, in a statement it issued on Friday, described the decision of the Kaduna State government as ill-informed, uncharitable, defective and counter-productive.
The statement, signed by Adesina Oke, Femi Aborisade, Jessica Jaja, Benson Upah and Onyeisi Chiemeke on behalf of the association, was titled: “We are with Nigeria Labour Congress”.
It read in part: “We, members of the International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW) condemn in strong terms the sacking of workers in Kaduna State and the threat by the State government to sack more workers in the coming days.
“The conduct of the government is an affront to law, morality and well-being of the affected workers, with grave security implications for the entire country.
“The mass sack and proposed sack are defective legally and procedurally, in light of the terms and conditions governing their employment and disengagement. We are afraid, the motivations of the Kaduna State Government are ill-informed, uncharitable, defective and counter-productive.
“The indescribable hardship this foists on the workers in this era of multiple denials, is better left to the imagination.
“It is an obvious fact that it is not only on these workers that the burden of survival rests but their numerous dependants as well as those whose economic activities and daily subsistence rest on the working class.
“We are appalled by this level of recklessness, insensitivity and lawlessness. Progressive or insightful governments around the world in this Covid-19 era are focused on saving or creating jobs and not destroying existing ones”.
The group urged the State governor, Nasir el-Rufa’i, “to avert his mind to this truth by recalling unfairly sacked workers as well as put on hold further mass sack, else he would have unwittingly written himself into the history of the damned”.
It further said, “In pursuance of this, we declare our unequivocal support for the protest/strike action by the Nigeria Labour Congress in Kaduna State.
“We accordingly urge our members across the country to mobilise to Kaduna to render services as may be required by circumstances”.
