Fuel: FG, labour meeting ends without agreement

Fuel: FG, labour meeting ends without agreement

The organised labour on Wednesday met with the Federal Government over the issue of fuel subsidy removal. The meeting ended without any agreement.

President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, and his counterpart at the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, said no consensus was reached at the meeting held in Abuja.

The meeting, at the instance of the FG, was aimed at reaching an agreement with organised labour after President Bola Tinubu’s announcement that petrol subsidy would cease to be in place by the end of June.

Dele Alake, a member of the government’s team, said Wednesday night that the meeting was engaging and adjourned to a later date.

He said, “We have been deliberating on finding very amicable resolutions to the issue at hand —to the queues and all of that and the increase in pump price.

“We had a very robust engagement. We cross-fertilised ideas, ideas flew from all sides and there is one thing that is remarkable even from the labour side — and that is Nigeria. We are all looking at the peace, progress and stability of Nigeria. That is what is paramount.

“Of course the NNPCL GCEO, Mr Kyari, is here, we cannot go into details now because the talks are still ongoing.

“We cannot finish everything at one setting, so we have adjourned now, we are continuing the talks at a later date very shortly. But the point is that the talks are ongoing and it’s always better for all sides to keep talking with a view to arriving at a very amicable resolution that will be in the longer-term interest for all Nigerians. That is as much as we can say now.”

Those in attendance on the FG’s side were Folashade Yemi-Esan, head of the federal civil service; Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPCL); Tijjani Umar, permanent secretary of the state house, among others.