Nigeria’s top labour leader, Adams Oshiomhole, on Wednesday announced the suspension of a 12-hour-old nationwide general strike over fuel tax after a meeting with senior union officials.
”Since the government has removed the illegal tax on petrol, we are also able to suspend our strike and resume work,” the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) told reporters.
Hundreds of thousands of Nigerian workers stayed at home on Wednesday despite a court order banning the NLC’s planned protest against the revival of an unpopular levy on petrol and diesel.
But the same court order also forced President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government to suspend the collection of the tax, at least until Monday when the court will begin hearings into allegations it was imposed unlawfully.
”We are happy that [the] government has agreed to abide by the court order and that it has made moves to suspend the fuel tax. We are suspending the strike until [the] government reintroduces the tax,” Oshiomhole said.
”We therefore call on Nigerian workers that they should formally resume work,” he said, after a meeting of the NLC’s central working committee. — Sapa-AFP