Senators, Reps to resolve crisis in 24 hrs

Day 3: Protesters in Lagos at the Gani Fawehinmi park Ojota,

THE Senate and the House of Representatives, yesterday, expressed their resolve to end the current nationwide strike by organised labour against removal of fuel subsidy by government within 24 hours, following positive responses from both parties after series of meetings held in the past 72 hours.
Senate President, David Mark had called two separate meetings on Monday and Tuesday nights at his Apo Mansion to settle the impasse between Labour and the Federal Government.
The meetings which were attended by the leadership of Organized Labour led by President of Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar and his counterpart from the Trade Union Congress, TUC, Comrade Peter Esele was however deadlocked as Senate could not convince labour to call off the strike.
Vanguard gathered that the Senate has proposed a middle point where federal government and labour will meet by way of a new price regime for petroleum products instead of the complete removal of fuel subsidy.
Sources said that it was suggested to government to peg the price of petrol at N90 or N100 per litre.
It will be recalled that Senator Mark had given assurance that the impasse between Organized Labour and Federal Government on the removal of fuel subsidy will soon come to end.

 The House of Representatives on its part was confident an agreement would be reached between labour and government within 24 hours.

Briefing newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday, the chairman of the House Committee on Labour, Pastor Essien Ekpenyong Ayi said this was based on positive responses from the representatives of the organised labour and those of the Federal Government at the ongoing negotiation with the two parties on the issue.
According to the Chairman, “we are making progress, and I sincerely believe that in the next 24 hours or so, the effort of the House to resolve this matter shall be achieved”.
He said that during the interface, labour insisted that certain conditions must be met before the federal government could go ahead with the deregulation policy and lamented that none of the conditions such as fixing the nation’s refineries, fixing of roads, power supply and functional transportation among others, has been met before it went ahead with the policy.
Ayi however said that hope was not lost as both parties have seen reasons why the matter should be resolved amicably before further damage was done to the nation’s economy.
Source