PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Kawu Baraje
The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the south east zone yesterday commenced an intensive campaign for the removal of fuel subsidy as it held a consultative meeting with the organised labour drawn from the five states of the zone.
The Labour unions that held a closed-door meeting with the PDP leadership under Chief Olisa Metuh were the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), among others.
The party, after the two-hour meeting at Roban Hotel, Enugu, could not arrive at any tangible conclusion as the labour leaders were said to have insisted on consulting with their members before taking a final decision on the vexatious issue.
Addressing the labour leaders drawn from Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states before the meeting went into a closed door session, the PDP National Vice Chairman (South east), Chief Metuh said the essence of the meeting was to mobilise the organised labour to endorse the proposed subsidy removal by the federal government with effect from January next year.
He, however, disclosed that the support of the south east for the proposal would be predicated on the government’s readiness to equally ensure that accruals from the removal are used to improve the lot of the people of the zone.
Among the issues he listed that must attract government’s attention include the construction of the Second Niger Bridge, full rehabilitation of the Enugu - Port-Harcourt expressway which he said has consistently been abandoned by successive administrations.
“Indeed, we have accepted the fact that the removal of the fuel subsidy will be in the best interest of Nigerians on the long run but we are equally giving government conditions. They must use whatever that comes out from the subsidy removal to improve on the living conditions of the people of the South east zone.
“The Enugu – Port Harcourt expressway has totally collapsed; the Enugu – Abakaliki Road is impassable; the Enugu – Onitsha road is anything but a road. The second Niger Bridge has become a sing-song. Time has come for government to equally assure us that money realised from the subsidy removal will be used to address these problems facing our zone,” he stated.
He therefore appealed to the labour leaders to buy into the proposal by lending their support to it, expressing optimism that government had good intention by coming up with the idea.
THISDAY checks revealed that no communiqué was issued at the end of the meeting, but Metuh simply told newsmen that the meeting discussed the issue of minimum wage and proposed removal of fuel subsidy.
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