The Oyo State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Kayode Martins has distanced the leadership of the Congress in the State from the court case some workers who voluntarily or were retired from the Oyo State Civil Service over infractions in their documents have instituted against the State government saying they are on their own.
Comrade Martins disclosed this while featuring on BOTTOM LINE – a weekly political programme on IBR 92.5fm Ibadan hosted by Aanuoluwapo Omorinde at the weekend.
In his words “no we don’t know anything about that”.
“It all started in 2019 when the State government employed the service of a Consultant to carry out the staff audit exercise. I was then Vice Chairman of our Union then and was part of the Committee at that time but later pulled out because of the way the Consultant treated some of our workers. We lodged a complaint with the State government but we were assured that justice will prevail and so, we should allow her (the Consultant) do her job.
After the verification exercise, 601 people were recommended for sanction. We picked it up from there. We went in search of these people. We asked from all the heads of ministries, departments and agencies to know who these ones are and after all that, 41 people did not show up. These are the ghost workers”. Maybe some of them have travelled out without informing anyone or something”.
When asked if the leadership of the Organized Labour in the State concur with the decision of the State government, the NLC Boss asked “what else could be done when they did not show up”.
The NLC Scribe who described the option of voluntary retirement given some of these affected workers as a soft-landing queried why some of them have chosen to approach the Court without informing the NLC leadership in the State. He faulted this move.
On why the NLC leadership supported this move of the Seyi Makinde led administration whereas it kicked against same in 2016 when the APC led government in the State tried doing same, Martins responded saying there is a lot of differences in what is happening now and what has happened.
According to him “what the Ajimobi government did then is totally different from what this government has done. Then, if there is a mistake of an alphabet in your name, you are gone. If you came into the service unmarried and then afterwards you get married, hopefully, your name will change. Then, you are gone. There was room for dialogue. Infact, the government then did not follow due process”.
He also dismissed the insinuation that Governor Seyi Makinde is pampering workers at the detriment of other people in the State.
