The Rivers State chapter of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has suspended its seven-day warning strike over the non-payment of salaries to about 300 staff.
The decision followed the intervention of Governor Siminalayi Fubara after a closed-door meeting on Tuesday with the state leadership of NULGE, the Chairman of Emuoha Local Government, Dr. Chidi Lloyd, and the Local Government Service Commission at Government House, Port Harcourt.
NULGE had earlier, through its Secretary, Sunday Adeniran, declared a strike beginning Monday, directing members across the state to withdraw their services.
The union said the action was to protest the refusal of the Emuoha council chairman to pay reinstated workers whose return had been approved by Governor Fubara before the declaration of emergency rule in the state.
Governor Fubara, it was gathered, instructed the Local Government Service Commission to liaise with the Emuoha council for an immediate resolution.
Announcing the suspension of the strike, the state President of NULGE, Clifford Paul, said: ‘He (Governor Fubara) has directed that this matter should be handled harmoniously. So on behalf of the State Administrative Council of NULGE, I enjoin each and every one of all the branch chairmen and the state officers to call off the strike’.
Also speaking, the Emuoha council chairman, Lloyd, commended the governor for what he called a timely intervention.
‘I very specially thank the Governor of Rivers State for his intervention. The Governor has issued very clear directives and we are all on the same page.
‘He (Fubara) has further directed that the council and the Local Government Service Commission should take it further. We will come out very soon with all that we have agreed.
‘Also to thank the Chairman of NULGE for appealing to his workers to call off the strike. We will move forward; it is nothing personal. We just want to ensure transparency in the system. And we want to commend the Governor for being on the side of transparency’, Lloyd added.
On his part, the Chairman of the State Local Government Service Commission, Israel Amadi, described the meeting as ‘very fruitful’.
‘We had a fruitful deliberation with His Excellency concerning the pending strike action. His Excellency has given his mandate and we want to use this opportunity to thank him for his intervention. And we hope that everything we have discussed and resolved will be implemented. I also thank NULGE for their collaboration and cooperation’, Amadi said.
No fewer than 300 workers had earlier stormed the Emuoha LG headquarters to protest their alleged dismissal by the council chairman, appealing to the state government to intervene.
Meanwhile, the Rivers State Government has announced the cancellation of the parade earlier scheduled for Wednesday to mark Nigeria’s 65th Independence Anniversary in Port Harcourt.
The event, slated for the Sharks Football Stadium (Alfred Diete-Spiff Sports Complex), was cancelled in line with a Federal Government pronouncement, according to a statement issued on Tuesday by Sir Dede Sampson Friday of the Special Services Bureau, Office of the Secretary to the State Government.
The statement read: ‘This is to inform the public that, in line with the pronouncement of the Federal Government, the parade scheduled to hold at the Sharks Stadium, Port Harcourt on Wednesday 1st October in commemoration of the 65th Independence Day in the state has been cancelled. We regret any inconvenience caused by this cancellation’.
