Workers of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) have issued a seven-day ultimatum to Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State to negotiate with them over the demolition of their properties.
They vowed to drag him and his administration to court if the state government failed to negotiate with them within the period.
The workers who carried placards and chanted labour solidarity songs embarked on protest on Monday over the demolition.
Addressing journalists during the protest, the president general of Nigerian Union of Railway Workers, Comrade Innocent Luka Ajiji, described the demolition as outrageous and unacceptable, adding that the government carried out the exercise with impunity.
Ajiji said that the government didn’t negotiate with the workers’ unions.
“We found this as totally unacceptable to us and that is why we came, these houses are on litigation because we won them (railway management) at the Industrial Court,” he stated.
“So, it is unacceptable to us and if you must temper with any of our structures there are procedures like I said and if that was followed at least it could have been accepted by us because in other states they demolish some of our houses and they were replicated. They demolished some of our offices and they were replicated but we do not know the intention of the Enugu State government.
“That is unacceptable to us, that is why we came here to protest to tell the whole world that we shall fight for our rights. We will not allow the Enugu State government to chase us out of work because when you start demolishing our offices, the federal government will see no need to keep us and will be paying us a salary for doing nothing. So we will not accept him driving us out of work. That is why we are here,” he said.
Also, the president-general of the Senior Staff Association of NRC, Comrade Emeka Okeke, condemned the demolition.
