NLC Faults El-Rufai’s Planned Probe of Kaduna Labour Protest

Onyebuchi Ezigbo

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has described the setting up of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry by the Kaduna State Government to investigate the warning strike action by the NLC from May 16 – 19, 2021, as a joke taken too far.

A statement signed by the President of the NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, said that the warning strike was purely a labour dispute and industrial relations action that had been legitimised by the 1999 Constitution.

Wabba said that it was equally important to point out that the Governor of Kaduna State, Mr. Nasiru El-Rufai, is a party to this dispute.

According to the NLC’s president, one of the core principles of law stated that one could not be a judge in one’s case, adding that “the NLC did not see how El-Rufai and the Kaduna State Government could be judge in this matter and we would still have justice given his repeated boast that he would deal with labour leaders and those who took part in the strike action….and that by the time he was done, they would never again set their feet in Kaduna.”

The NLC’s statement reads in part: “Our attention has been drawn to the Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up by the Kaduna State Government to look into the remote and immediate causes of the warning strike action by the NLC from May 16 – 19, 2021, its legality and the impact on the state and other entities.

“The commission of inquiry is also to look at the role played by various individuals and organisations including our own Nigeria Police Force and determine or recommend consequential action(s).

“Without prejudice to the right of a state government to set up a commission of inquiry, and although we have the greatest respect for the Chairman of the Commission, Justice Ishaq Bello, and members of the commission, we would think this is a joke taken too far, an abuse of executive powers of a governor and a waste of the resources of the state.”

Meanwhile, the NLC has vowed to stand by its decision to embark on another strike and protest in Kaduna State without any notice.

It said that the statutory notice on the escalation of the strike/protest action as given by its National Executive Council effective from 22nd June 2021 still stands.

“In furtherance of this, all our affiliate trade unions and members across the country are to step up mobilisation,” it said.