Minimum wage: FG urged to declare state of emergency in Enugu •We’ll grind Kano to a halt -NLC insists •Katsina NLC declares indefinite strike

THE Southeast Zone of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) has called on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in Enugu State with a view to stemming the crisis between the state government and the organised labour in the state over the N18, 000.00 minimum wage.
In a statement signed by the Zonal Director of the CLO, Olu Omotayo, which was made available to reporters in Enugu, on Wednesday, it stated that the indefinite strike declared by labour, following the inability of the governor to implement the full minimum wage as approved by the Federal Government, every activity had come to a halt in the state.
Omotayo noted that hospitals, banks and other financial institutions had withdrawn their services while electricity supply in the state had been very erratic, thereby subjecting the inhabitants of the state to untold hardship.
To make matters worse, he added, Governor Sullivan Chime abandoned the state in the heat of the minimum wage crisis and embarked on an overseas trip.
Meanwhile, THE deputy national president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Moh’d Shukabu  Kiri, has said the union would ground Kano to a halt, by compelling all private sectors in the state to join ongoing strike embarked upon   by civil servants, in the state, while warning the state government to desist from using political thugs to harass and intimidate its members.
This is just as the NLC said  the labour union would triumph over the undemocratic state government that preferred  tyranny and dictatorship as alternative to social dialogue.
Kiri, who made the statement at a press conference in Kano, said the national body would soon be in Kano, to enforce the closure of all industries, commercial banks, Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), petrol stations and others private enterprises.
Meanwhile,  The Nigerian Labour Congress NLC, Katsina State branch, begins an indefinite strike today over the non-implementation of the new national minimum wage in the state.
In this regard, the union has called on all its affiliate members in the state to join the strike to make the state government to implement the new wage in the state.
Addressing newsmen in Katsina on Wednesday, the state NLC chairman, Comrade Aliyu Matazu, said the union rejected the table payment presented by the state government, because it had no bearing to what the union demanded for.
Matazu, who noted that, the union was convinced that the state government was not ready to implement the new national minimum wage, declared that, it would further reject any table that did not meet its request.
According to him, “the NLC is convinced beyond doubt that, the state government is not ready to implement the N18,000 national minimum wage.
“We are equally convinced that, the government has the capacity to pay and sustain the payment of the new minimum wage”, he added.
The NLC chairman averred that, “the state NLC rejects the so-called table presented by the government in totality and will reject any table that does not take into consideration the fact that a worker is neither a beggar nor a slave.”

Source: Nigerian Tribune