Strike: Courts, schools, government offices shut down in Abia

Our correspondent, who monitored the exercise, reported that at about 9am students of Government Primary and Post-Primary Schools in the State where seen leaving their school premises. A teacher who granted audience to our correspondent under the condition of anonymity said the authority asked the staff and students to go in line with the directives from the NLC. When our correspondent visited the federal and state secretariats at Ogurube layout in Umuahia, the complexes were under lock and key. Some civil servants who had reported for work in the morning were seen leaving the two complexes. At the state high court complex on Ikot-Ekpene Road, Umuahia, lawyers and their clients were seen standing in front of the court with its gate locked. A legal practitioner identified as Mr Uzoma Nwaigwe, said the exercise stopped the hearing of a case involving one of his clients. “I came to represent my client who has been in detention for over three weeks, he was supposed to be charged to court today so that he can regain his freedom, but unfortunately the court is on strike and the police have no option but to take him back to the cell. “I heard that NLC is on strike and the association of judiciary workers complied with the strike,” he said. He urged the organised labour to keep dialoguing with the Federal Government to increase workers minimum wage, and expressed fear that increasing the wage from N18000 to N56,000 might also have some inflationary consequences on the economy. “Government should dialogue and see what they can do to help the workers,” he said. Chief Ben Torty, who came to the court for the hearing of a matter involving his community, expressed disappointment that the matter could not come up because of the strike action. He however said the NLC was fighting a just cause because government workers had been suffering for a long time under the current wage being paid to them. He said, “The strike affected our matter because the government is involved and the court is involved too, we will wait until the court resumes and we will take another date for the hearing. “The government should increase the minimum wage because the Nigerian masses have been suffering for a long time, particularly in Abia State.”]]>