NLC will pay for 'waking me up' with petrol trucks - Ngige threatens

NLC will pay for 'waking me up' with petrol trucks - Ngige threatens

- Chris Ngige has said said that members of the NLC will pay for waking him up in his residence during their protest

- Ngige said he was woken up from his sleep around 5 am on Wednesday, May 8, by NLC members and their leaders

- According to the minister, his family has been distraught from the action of the labour members

The minister of labour and productivity, Chris Ngige, has threatened legal action against members of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) for 'waking him up' in the past week during their protest at his Abuja residence.

Vanguard reports that Ngige said he was woken up from his sleep around 5 am on Wednesday, May 8, when members of the NLC led by their president Ayuba Wabba stormed his residence with petrol laden truck in protest.

According to Ngige, his wife had informed him that their security guards were having issues with some strange fellows at the gate house.

He also said his wife noted that some people who arrived the vicinity at about 4.30 am the same day were on the walls of his house.

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Ngige said: "When the security people accosted them, they discovered that it was the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress himself that came physically with two tankers; one laden with petroleum, the second half empty."

"One was put at the gate of my house and the second at the gate of my neighbour’s house. When I heard the story, it was very strange.

"I looked from upstairs and I saw that the tankers were actually blocking the entrance to my house. I came down and asked for the chief detail who told me the whole story. And it emerged that they even had a scuffle with the President of the NLC when they were struggling for the keys of the tankers.

"So I went back and made calls to the FCT Commissioner of Police, Director of SSS and the Federal Road Safety Commission to see if they could move the vehicles," the minister lamented.

He further alleged that following the NLC protest, his wife, children, children of his domestic staff and security personnel were trapped.

The minister also said it was difficult for his neighbour to go out for his daily activity on that day.

Noting the illegality of the action of the NLC leaders and their members, Ngige said unionism means dialogue and not obstruction.

"It is obstruction; it is against the law of the country. Then putting a tanker with petrol is arson, the place could have caught fire, the entire street could have been on fire. I don’t know what to say," he said.

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He also said that he later gathered that the NLC was focused on blocking the entrance to his residence till 10 am to prevent him from attending the Federal executive meeting on that day.

"Those tankers were removed around 6 pm. Are you planning to take any action against the NLC? My neighbour says he is going to take legal action. I will also take legal action, illegal actions are actionable; nobody is above the law. Their grouse is the inauguration of the NSITF Board.

So, I am very very distraught, my family is traumatised, the people in my house are traumatised, my domestic staff and their families are traumatised; even my neighbour and his wife couldn’t do their business for the day.

Those tankers were removed around 6pm. Are you planning to take any action against the NLC? My neighbour says he is going to take legal action. I will also take legal action, illegal actions are actionable; nobody is above the law. Their grouse is the inauguration of the NSITF Board," Ngige added.

READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda

Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the NLC on Wednesday, May 8, blocked the residence of Ngige, in the Asokoro area of Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.

The NLC took the action over the alleged failure of the minister to swear in Frank Kokori as the board chairman of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).

Ngige was absent at the 2019 May Day celebration at the Eagles Square, Abuja, making it the first time in many years that a sitting labour minister would fail to identify with the nation’s labour movement during the celebration.

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