Minimum Wage: Oyo APC tells Makinde to stop crying wolf

Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan

The Oyo State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, on Monday said that the outgoing government in the state has the right to open discussion with the labour unions in the state, stressing that the leadership of the union initiated the discussion with the Governor Abiola Ajimobi administration.

The party said that it is only an irresponsible state government that would disobey the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari and as well turn down the request of its workforce, clarifying that the Organised Labour in the State – the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Trade Union Congress and Joint Negotiating Committee, JNC, Oyo State Council wrote a letter dated April 24, 2019 with reference nos NLC/TUC/JNC/OY/ADM/13 requesting for immediate implementation of the New National Minimum wage in Oyo State with effect from April 2019, salary.

Oyo APC Publicity Secretary, Dr AbdulAzeez Olatunde also said that media houses in the state, especially Fresh Fm should always follow the principles of ethical journalism by cross checking facts before broadcasting or going to press, noting that a Fresh Fm analyst on Monday during the newspaper review programme, “Freshly Pressed” made a categorical statement to mislead the general public that the organized labour did not write a letter to the government and that Ajimobi administration never paid salaries on the 25th or 26th of any month.

Olatunde said that the continuous display of unprofessional conduct by Fresh Fm is unbecoming and indecorous of any credible news medium, appealing to the media house to stop feeding the general public with falsehood as the assertions of the analyst were patently false.

The APC Publicity Secretary stated that it was an unfortunate display of lack of understanding of governance for the governor-elect’s spokesperson, Mr. Dotun Oyelade to insinuate that the administration of Governor Ajimobi would set a booby trap for the incoming administration, stressing that Mr. Oyelade was being haunted by the landmines set for the Ajimobi administration.

He said that the assumption of Mr. Oyelade and his cohorts was wrong, stating that the in-coming government was at liberty to discontinue the discussion after its assumption of office as the present administration had not agreed with the labour on the modalities of implementing the new minimum wage.

Olatunde revealed that in the jointly signed letter by Comrades Kofo Ogundeji, Secretary NLC, Mayowa Falegbe, Secretary TUC and Kolawole Eniola, JNC Vice Chairman to Governor Ajimobi, the Organised Labour had requested for implementation of the new minimum wage for the April 2019 salary and requested that the governor acknowledged their letter and take quick action on their request.