The Nigerian Army has disowned claims that its men were surrounding the venue of the ongoing meeting between the National Labour Congress (NLC) and the Secretary General of the Federation (SGF).
News About Nigeria reported that the NLC earlier raised a distress signal, claiming the soldiers surrounded the venue of its meeting with the federal government to negotiate a new minimum wage.
The NLC, in a post on its official X page, wrote, “Soldiers are presently surrounding the venue of the meeting between Labour and Government at the premises of the SGF.”
“Any Attempt to Intimidate, Provoke or Blackmail Our Leaders at the Negotiation table, Would be resisted and Strike action would further be prolonged .”
Reacting to the situation, Army Headquarters said its men were present for different purposes.
The army wrote on X: “The attention of Army Headquarters has been drawn to a false breaking news by NLC alleging that soldiers currently surround the venue of the ongoing meeting between NLC and the SGF.
“Kindly note that the NSA, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, who is also attending the meeting, arrived at the meeting venue with his retinue of statutorily approved military escorts. Once the meeting is over, the escorts will lead the NSA from the venue.
“Kindly disregard the deliberate and misleading falsehood being peddled about the presence of the escorts at the meeting.”
The NLC has been negotiating with the government for months to secure a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
The union has been demanding a wage of N615,500, while the government has offered N60,000.
The negotiations have been deadlocked, leading to a nationwide strike that has paralysed economic activities in the country.
