Insurgency: NLC Reacts To Governors Refusal To Pay Benefits Of Killed Workers

NLC Promises To Write Concerned State Governors

The Nigeria Labour Congress, has spoken out on depriving the families of more than 2,000 workers who died due to insurgency in North East, Nigeria, their benefits from their respective state governors.

Ayuba Wabba, the President of NLC, stated this while speaking at the Employment and Decent Work for Peace: National Feedback meeting organised by the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity in collaboration with the NLC on Tuesday in Abuja.

He promised that the congress would get across to the affected state governors in the region to request that workers who were killed in the region as a result of insurgency got their benefits.

Wabba revealed that workers who lost their lives to insurgency in the region were over 2,000 in number, all together.

He futher stated that years after workers who happen to be breadwinners for their families were killed, their families had not be paid their benefits.

He said teachers, local government and health workers were the most affected, stressing that orphans and widows who are victims of the insurgency are merely surviving on contributions from unions.

According to him, 546 teachers, 101 health workers and six nurses have lost their lives in Borno alone since the commencement of the insurgency as at January 2016.

The labour leader said this figure was obtained from the American Solidarity Centre.

Wabba expressed disappointment that the benefits were yet to be paid to the distressed families, saying: “I am not happy that their benefits have not been paid’’.

“We have lost more than 2,000 workers, teachers, local government workers and health workers because they are usually the first line of casualties.

“The ideology of the insurgents is that they don’t believe in western education and therefore the first person to be the victim is the teacher, because he must be at the place of work to teach the pupil,’’ he said.

According to him, most of them were killed in active service.

He took the opportunity to call on all the states that were affected to give attention to the benefit of those heroes that have died in active service.

“We will write a formal demand to those governors to say that those workers that have died in active service should be paid their benefit,” the NLC president said.