Ajaero was summoned by the police for questioning over allegations of terrorism financing, treasonable felony, and cybercrime.

The NLC’s National Executive Council held an emergency meeting on Tuesday, where they resolved to put their members and affiliates on red alert.

The union’s deputy president, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju, announced the resolution, stating that a nationwide strike would be called if Ajaero is detained.

Ajaero was summoned by the police on Monday, with a letter ordering him to present himself for questioning by 10:00 am on Tuesday. The police warned that a warrant of arrest would be issued if he failed to comply.

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Daily Trust had reported how the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) announced that they would picket offices of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and Distribution Companies (DisCos) nationwide as a result of the failure to comply with their demand of total reversal of electricity tariff hike.

The NERC had raised the electricity tariff from N65/kwh to N225/Kwh for Band A users.

The federal government later approved a marginal slash, which labour rejected and demanded full reversal, giving an ultimatum of May 12.

The unions had also asked NERC to stop what it described as “discriminatory practice” of segregating electricity consumers into “arbitrary” bands.

In fulfilment of the plan to picket offices, the organised labour carried out the action yesterday in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, and various states of the federation with the sole message calling for reversal of tariff increase.

In Abuja, members of the organised labour, civil society organisations and concerned Nigerians, who protested and locked up the headquarters of NERC, rejected the appeal of the commission.

The protesters, who were led by the President of NLC, Joe Ajaero and his counterpart from TUC, Festus Osifo, as early as 8:00am, insisted on total reversal of the recent electricity tariff hike.

Addressing the visibly angry protesters, the Chairman of NERC, Sanusi Garba, said the commission would go back to the drawing board concerning some of the demands listed by the organised labour.

Garba said, “On behalf of the NERC, I want to welcome the comrades who have come here on a peaceful demonstration. We have taken note of all you have said, particularly about the affordability of tariffs. We have listened to you and the concerns of Nigerians.

“We also noted clearly what Comrade Ajaero said about energy sources, and I would like to say that the new Zungeru power plant is already online, generating over 600 megawatts. We are also working hard to ramp up solar generation in such a way that tariffs will start to come down.

“Comrade Ajaero also made remarks about banks sitting on the boards of distribution companies. The NERC had earlier given deadlines to all the banks to exit from the boards of distribution companies because we want proper investors on the boards of these companies.

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This was contained in a memorandum of understanding signed Monday by the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, and General Secretary, Emmanuel Ugboaja; as well as the TUC President, Festus Osifo, and Secretary General, Nuhu Toro.

The three-page document was also signed by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong; Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Dr Nkeiruka Onyejeocha; and Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris.

Read the full text below:

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING REACHED BETWEEN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA AND THE NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS (NLC) AND TRADE UNION CONGRESS OF NIGERIA (TUC) AS A RESULT OF DISPUTE ARISING FROM WITHDRAWAL OF SUBSIDY ON THE PRICE OF PREMIUM MOTOR SPIRIT (PMS) ON MONDAY, THE 2ND DAY OF OCTOBER, 2023

Arising from the withdrawal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) by the Federal Government and the resultant increase in the price of the commodity, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) issued a strike notice which had elapsed and they were poised to embark on a strike billed to commence on Tuesday, the 3rd of October, 2023.

Consequently, a meeting was called by the Federal Government to avert the strike and after much discussion, the following agreements were reached:

1. The Federal Government grants a wage award of N35,000 (thirty-five thousand Naira) only to all Federal Government workers beginning from the month of September pending when a new national minimum wage is expected to have been signed into law.

2. A minimum wage committee shall be inaugurated within one month from the date of this agreement.

3. Federal Government suspends collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) on Diesel for six months beginning from October, 2023.

4. Federal Government accepts to vote N100 billion for the provision of high capacity CNG buses for mass transit in Nigeria. Provisions are also being made for initial 55,000 CNG conversion kits to kick start an auto gas conversion programme, whilst work is ongoing on state-of-the-art CNG stations nationwide. The rollout aims to commence by November with pilots across 10 campuses nationwide.

5. The Federal Government plans to implement various tax incentive measures for private sector and the general public.

6. On the leadership crises rocking the NURTW and the purported proscription of RTEAN, the Federal Government commits to handling Labour matters in line with relevant ILO Conventions and Nigerian Labour Acts. A resolution of the ongoing impasse is expected by or before October 13.

7. The issue of outstanding Salaries and Wages of Tertiary Education workers in Federal-owned educational institutions is being referred to Ministry of Labour and Employment for further engagement.

8. The Federal Government commits to pay N25,000 per month for three months starting from October, 2023 to 15 million households, including vulnerable pensioners.

9. The Federal Government will increase its initiatives on subsidized distribution of fertilizers to farmers across the country.

10. The Federal Government should urge State Government through the National Economic Council and Governors Forum to implement wage award for their workers. Similar consideration should also be given to local government and private sector workers.

11. The Federal Government commits to the provision of funds as announced by the President on the 1st of August broadcast to the Nation for Micro and Small Scale Enterprises. The MSMEs beneficiaries should commit to the principle of decent jobs.

12. A joint visitation will be made to the refineries to ascertain their rehabilitation status.

13. All parties commit to henceforth abide by the dictates of Social dialogue in all our future engagements.

14. The NLC and TUC accept to suspend for 30 days the planned Indefinite Nationwide strike scheduled to begin, Tuesday, the 3rd of October, 2023.

15. This Memorandum shall be filed with the relevant Court of competent jurisdiction within one (1) week as consent judgment by the Federal Government.

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Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, announced after a meeting with organised labour, said the reduction would be from N168 to N162.44 per litre with effect from December 14.

The meeting which took place at the banquet hall of the presidential villa started at 8:55PM on Monday and lasted till Tuesday morning at 1:27AM.

Ngige noted that the price reduction did not imply the suspension of deregulation because it did not affect the price of crude oil but on areas where the NNPC as the main importer had agreed that it could cut costs like freight and demurrage costs.

Ngige said that the agreed reduction of the price of PMS was a function of a joint committee of NNPC and labour representatives which devised means to cut costs.

Ngige also said a technical committee has been put in place to ensure price stability in the industry. He said the committee would report back to the larger house on January 25 and will appraise the market forces and other things that would ensure stability in the industry.

“Our discussion was fruitful and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, which is the major importer and marketers of petroleum products, and customers have agreed that there will be a slide down of the pump price of PMS and that the price cut will get us about N5 per litre and that the price cut will take effect from next Monday, a week today,” Ngige told journalists.

NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, also confirmed the minister’s claims, said that the agreement was reached by both sides.

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