The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) says it has no plan to hold any nationwide protest yet against the present hike in price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol caused by subsidy removal.
Labour said though it was outraged by what it described as “mindless price increase which is intended to bring untold hardship to ordinary Nigerians”, but there was no protest yet.
Comrade Joe Ajaero, President of NLC, in a statement on Thursday signed by the Congress’ Head of Information Unit, Benson Upah, was reacting to reports in some quarters that the organised labour had scheduled a protest for Friday.
Ajaero explained the labour’s position, while maintaining that organised labour would hold meetings tomorrow (Friday) to deliberate on the issue.
He said, “Our attention has been drawn to stories circulating in the social media space claiming that the Nigeria Labour Congress would commence protest action tomorrow (Friday, June 2nd) against the increase in the pump price of PMS.
“In as much as we are outraged by this mindless price increase which is intended to bring untold hardship to ordinary Nigerians, we have no plan to start any action tomorrow.
“What we do have for now are organ meetings slated for tomorrow, Friday, June 2nd, 2023 to deliberate on the price issue. We promise to keep Nigerians informed on our next line of action after our meetings.
“In light of this, we advise the public to disregard these stories. They did not emanate from the Congress.”
The meeting between the organised labour and the federal government representatives on Wednesday at the State House, Abuja, on the removal of subsidy ended in a stalemate as no agreement was reached.