The Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) has suspended its planned nationwide strike.
This followed Monday’s meeting with the Federal Government and stakeholders after tanker drivers suspended operations and stopped lifting of petroleum products amid harsh economic realities.
NARTO members had threatened shutdown all over the country beginning Monday over the high cost of Automotive Gas Oil also known as diesel which is used to fuel their trucks for the movement of petroleum products across Nigeria.
Like Premium Motor Spirit popularly known as petrol which now sells at over N600 per litre, the price of diesel has skyrocketed of late, no thanks to the forex crisis in the country. At the moment, diesel sells above N1,250 per litre in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the organised Labour on Monday began mobilising its members for a nationwide protest slated for February 27 and 28 over the cost of living crisis in the country.
Sources in the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress told our correspondents that the National Executive Council met via Zoom on Friday, February 16, to review the resolution of the National Action Council of the NLC and the Trade Union Congress via-a-vis organised labour agreement with the Federal Government.
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Rising from the crucial meeting, the labour unions, sources said, agreed to demand the implementation of the agreement with the Federal Government without further delay.
“The NLC at its Zoom meeting held on Friday, February 16, 2024, resolved in line with the resolution of NAC of NLC and that of the TUC, which demands that the agreement between the leadership of the two labour centres and government be implemented without further delay,”
The Federal Government’s failure to fulfil its promises after the 14-day ultimatum by Labour, according to sources, will be met with two-day nationwide protest already slated for February 27 and 28.
The Head of Information of the NLC, Benson Upah, who confirmed the resolution of the meeting, told one of our correspondents on the telephone that the NLC affiliates were being mobilised for the protest just as state chapters of the congress vowed to join the nationwide demonstration.