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Thursday, 1 October 2015
Cross River workers begin indefinite strike on Friday
Workers in Cross River State will on Friday embark on an indefinite strike following Government’s inability to meet their demands.
Bulletins circulated by the Organised Labour Action Committee Bulletin indicated their demands included salaries of local government staff, teachers, Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH) staff, weighed in allowances and other salary related payments.
They were shocked that the government claimed that the bailout funds they received was to offset loans acquired.
“Labour says bailout funds are meant for payment of salary arrears, outstanding gratuities/pension and deduction from salaries.
“Comrades this is our stand, our demand is that the government offsets all these payments if not please sat at home from October 2, 2015.
“MDAs are grounded, no activity, no funding. One man show, no exco. Boards, commissions and agencies not formed. Promotion of civil servants stalled. Salaries paid in parts, no release of deductions from salaries. Civil servants are made bad debtors to banks and loan vendors. All we hear is noise and sirens. Comrades, we are tired of waiting,” the Bulletin read.
After a botched meeting with the Governor Ben Ayade, Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade John Ushie, said the governor never granted them audience to sort out the issues until they had to resort to strike.
“The strike is organized by the joint council, but as affiliates we are giving them the covering fire, so we just came out from a meeting with the government of Cross River State. We met with the deputy governor and it was smooth and it was going well in the way of negotiations and he pleaded we should meet with the governor.
“We waited for a long time and when he came and met us he expressed disappointment because he said he has done a lot for Cross River and thought the workers would appreciate that but we did not. We let him understand that it was not true that workers don’t appreciate that he has paid salaries and paid net, because salaries are based on gross. But this other ones remaining are statutory. So if they are statutory and they are made from salaries, there is a need to remit that.
“So check off dues should go to the union, loans from bank go the bank, then the computer scheme should to the company that supplied the computer, because Labour had given an approval to that in conjunction with government. So if government now sureties us and we now surety our workers, that money should go to where we they are supposed to go, otherwise, it would amount to double deductions.
“We also let them know things are difficult for workers. Workers are getting loans from banks. That is how they are managing to survive, because the salaries we collect today in the service cannot take us.
“Therefore these workers access loans from the bank and for the fact that the state government has refused to remit loans that were deducted from them to the banks, the bank has refused to give them loans. Many of them have come to my office to cry. So we appeal to the government to release what is due the workers. That is not government money. It is the money of the workers. That is what we are asking for. It is not something new.
“We as workers of Cross River State appreciate the government. We are ready to cooperate as Labour, but that we are ready to cooperate does not erase the fact that what is supposed to be done right is not done and we keep quiet. It is not an issue of getting offended that we did not appreciate him, the truth is that there is a disconnect, no communication. We have sought audience severally with the governor to no avail. Since he assumed office this is the first time we are meeting. And if it was not because of the strike action, we would not have been able to meet with him,” Ushie said.
Chairman of the State Joint Service Negotiation Council, Comrade Thomas Igbang, said the meeting they had with the governor ended in a stalemate because “we did not come to any agreement on issues we raised with the government.”
Kidnapped Pastor regains freedom in Ondo
After spending eleven days in captivity,the pastor- in-charge of the Apostolic Faith Church, Ilepa in Ikare Akoko, Pastor Japhet Obafemi has regained his freedom.
He was kidnapped barely 24 hours after the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation(SGF)Chief Olu Falae was abducted in his Ilado village farm site.
Sources said the 70-year-old cleric was released by his abductors at Ise-Akoko few kilometres from where he was picked last week Monday along Auga-Akunnu road in Akoko North-East Local government area of ondo state.
It was learnt that the suspected kidnappers eventually released the pastor without collecting any ransom.
The Cleric was abducted at a time he was just being discharged from hospital after months of sickness.
The abductors had earlier demanded for N60m ransom,which they later reduced to N16m.
They told his wife,Olu to sell all their properties in order to get the the money demanded.
Narrating his ordeal Pastor Obafemi who sustained injury on his head noted that he trekked over six kilometres from the bush where he was released to Ise-Akoko.
At the Cleric’s mission house at Ilepa-ikare, prominent people including religious leaders were visiting to felicitate with him, his Wife Hannah, and church members.
The Caretaker Chairman of Akoko North East Local Government, Alhaji Azeez Al-Amam, expressed appreciation to the Media, Security Agencies and Governor Olusegun Mimiko for their various roles in ensuring the rescue of the cleric.
Nigeria’s future bright, says Saraki
The Senate President, Bukola Saraki on Thursday maintained that the future of Nigeria is bright.
He spoke at the end of the 55th independence anniversary celebration at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Stressing that it will not be business as usual, he said that the National Assembly will continue to make laws that will impact positively on Nigerians.
He said: “I am hopeful and confident that the future is very bright. In next few years, things will be even better.
“It will not be business as usual. We will ensure that the National Assembly will be people-oriented and will make laws that will make impact on Nigerians,” he said.
The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Mahmud Mohammed said: “We will make it by the grace of God. We are on the right path.”
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), John Odigie-Oyegun, also said that Nigeria is now on the road to progress and prosperity.
“At 55, we have finally discovered that we are on the wrong road. We have finally moved to the road that leads to progress, hope, employment, prosperity and that will lead to Nigeria, finally attaining that greatness that God destined it for. We are on the way,” he stated.
Buhari urges patience on cabinet
President Muhammadu Buhari said on Thursday he had submitted a cabinet list to Senate for approval but asked Nigerians to continue to be patient with his four-month search for a government.
Foreign investors and Nigerian businessman have criticised Buhari for taking so long to nominate cabinet members when the country’s economy is taking a hammering from a plunge in oil prices, Reuters reported.
“Impatience is not a virtue,” Buhari, who took office on May 29, said in a televised speech on Independence Day. “The first set of names for ministerial nominees has been sent to the Senate. Subsequent lists will be forwarded in due course.”
Buhari gave no names or time frame, saying only: “Careful and deliberate decisions after consultations get far better results.”
The President stressed he was restructuring the mismanaged Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and conducting audits of key state institutions such as the central bank and customs and tax authorities as part of the anti-graft campaign that got him elected in March.
Buhari, a former military ruler, did not offer a concrete action plan to tackle an economic crisis as oil prices have eroded public finances, sent the naira currency plunging and delayed payment of public sector salaries.
“Prudent housekeeping is needed now more than ever in view of the sharp decline in world market oil prices,” he said. “It is a challenge we have to face squarely.”
Senate President Bukola Saraki will read the cabinet list to the upper legislative house on Tuesday, the Senate said in a statement.
150 Hajj stampede victims buried
Emir of Kano Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II,yesterday urged Saudi Authorities to publish details of victims of last Thursday’s Mina stampede on a dedicated website.
The emir, who is the leader of the Nigeria Central Coordinating Team for the Hajj, made the call at the post-Arafat meeting organised by (NAHCON) in Jeddah.
“At this age of technology, why can’t the Saudi authorities put the photos of the deceased on a website so that people can identify them easily without having to be moved from one hospital or place to another.
“We have to demand for it,” Sanusi stressed.
The Leader, Medical Team of NAHCON, Dr Ibrahim Kana, had earlier said that 1,180 bodies had been identified so far through frontal and lateral face photographs and finger prints.
He, however, lamented that only 150 corpses had been buried so far by Saudi Authorities.
Kana said of the 1,180 bodies identified, 64 were Nigerians, adding that 71 Nigerians had sustained injuries during the incident.
CBN: banks have sufficient liquidity
There is liquidity in the banking system, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said yesterday.
But the apex bank is concerned that Africa’s biggest economy is slowing.
Monetary Policy Director Moses Tule, said yesterday that the bank’s decision last week to cut the cash reserve ratio to 25 per cent from 31 per cent had injected 300 billion naira ($1.51 billion) into the financial system.
Prior to the move, liquidity on the interbank market had dried up after commercial banks were ordered to move government revenue to a single account at the central bank, as part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption drive.
That exacerbated problems felt by Africa’s top oil exporter, which has been hit by a drop in crude revenues, the main source of funds for the state budget and imports of basic food items.
JP Morgan’s decision to remove Nigeria from its influential emerging markets bond index (GBI-EM), which means investment funds tracking the index will sell Nigerian bonds, added to upward pressure on national borrowing costs.
“There’s sufficient liquidity in the Nigerian banking system to take up whatever foreign investors may dump, so we are not disturbed,” said Tule,
“By cutting the cash reserve ratio we introduced back more than 300 billion naira,” he said adding, however, that the bank was “concerned that the economy is slowing”.
Growth halved in the second quarter compared with the same period last year, prompting Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele to say at last week’s monetary policy committee meeting that the economy was at risk of slipping into recession in 2016.
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