The organized labour, on Friday, walked out of a scheduled meeting of the Presidential Steering Committee on subsidy palliatives at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Joe Ajaero, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), had led his delegation to the Chief of Staff’s office, venue of the meeting.
The Steering Committee had met with the government delegation on Wednesday where the two parties agreed to reconvene on Friday to get brief from the three subcommittees set up to look into various demands.
The committee was constituted by the government to come up with palliatives that would cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal on the workers.
A source at the meeting confirmed that three subcommittees, the Mass Transit, the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Cash transfer subcommittees, were supposed to be present to brief the Steering Committee on the measures put in place to cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy removal on the workers.
But labour claimed that government officials, who are members the subcommittees were nowhere to be found.
The member of the Steering Committee from labour who spoke on the condition of anonymity said, “They are not prepared for the meeting. That’s the truth. The government representatives had insisted that the meeting should proceed even though no quorum was formed.
“They are using cover to deceive Nigerians. There are supposed to be three subcommittees, mass transit subcommittee, the CNG, and the cash transfer, to brief us, the steering committee but government was not prepared for the meeting.