NLC, TUC vows to resist plot to demolish workers’ quarters in Ondo

NLC, TUC vows to resist plot to demolish workers’ quarters in Ondo

Adewale Momoh, Akure

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Ondo State have disclosed that the planned move by the state government to evict workers from the government-owned quarters ahead of demolition will be resisted.

According to the unions, the grounds for the proposed eviction that civil servants in the state have been subletting the quarters at exorbitant rates was a “cheap lie”.

In a statement signed by Comrade Olapade Adeniji, NLC Chairman, Comrade Fatuase Clement, TUC Chairman, and Comrade Segun Ajiböye, Chairman of the Joint Negotiation Council (JNC), they challenged the Special Adviser to the Governor on Infrastructure, Lands and Housing, Ayorinde Olawoye, to publish verifiable evidence to support allegations.

The statement reads, “The attention of the Organised Labour in Ondo State, comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), has been drawn to a public statement issued by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Infrastructure, Lands and Housing, Engr. Ayorinde Abiola Olawoye, concerning the proposed redevelopment of the Alagbaka Government Staff Quarters, Akure.

“Ordinarily, we would have ignored the self-congratulatory rhetoric and anti-worker posturing laced throughout the said release. However, in the face of deliberate misinformation, half-truths, and the thinly veiled insults against hard-working civil servants, silence would be betrayal.

“We wish to state in very clear terms that the claim that civil servants have ‘sublet” government quarters at ‘exorbitant rates” is not only a cheap lie but a calculated attempt to paint workers as profiteers in order to justify the eviction plan.

“We challenge the special adviser to publish verifiable evidence to support his wild and defamatory allegations. Until he does, we consider his statement as not just false but malicious.

The unions further stressed that “it is disturbing that in a time when citizens – including government workers – are battling economic hardship, rising food and fuel costs, and housing shortages, what the government considers a priority is an eviction plan disguised as urban renewal.

“The Alagbaka Staff Quarters have served as a critical buffer against the housing deficit in Akure for decades. Displacing workers from their homes without any clear resettlement or compensation plan is cruel, anti-labour, and completely unacceptable.

“We take particular exception to the condescending assertion by Engr. Olawoye that ‘less than one per cent” of the state workforce resides in the quarters. Since when did the number of people affected determine the worth of their dignity? Even if it

were just one family, the government has a responsibility to treat its workers with empathy and not as disposable statistics.”