Angry Ekiti State workers on Thursday stormed the state secretariat in Ado Ekiti and chased away their colleagues who had resumed for work over their unpaid salaries.

The workers who were led by the former chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Ayodeji Aluko and his Trade Union Congress (TUC) counterpart, Kolawole Olaiya accused the government of deceit over its failure to settle outstanding salaries.

In the protest which started at about 8.25 am, the group addressed the workers at the secretariat, where they ordered their members to leave their offices and commence an indefinite strike.

They maintained that it was wrong for the state governor, Ayodele Fayose to betray the trust and confidence the workers reposed in him in the lead up to his gubernatorial victory in 2014.

The Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), in a statement by its State President, Bunmi Ajimoko had earlier told its staff across the state to commence strike on Wednesday but it was later called off due to undisclosed reasons.

The irate workers also dissolved the state executives of the NLC and TUC headed by Ade Adesanmi and Odunayo Adesoye respectively, alleging that they had become passive by shying away from carrying out their responsibilities as labour leaders.

“Today, we are dissolving the executives of NLC and TUC in Ekiti State, and they stand dissolved because their leaders, Adesanmi and Adesoye, have lost their values. They are no longer talking about the welfare of the workers they were expected to defend.

“We decided not to do this protest before election so that they won’t read political meanings to it. Workers have died just because they are not paid. In 2014, Fayose said any governor who owed just
a month salary because he is building infrastructure doesn’t worth being a governor.

“Today, the governor is owing pensioners 10 months, local council workers eight months; civil servants and teachers are owed six months. We are not fighting Fayose but he must pay the workers.

“Shortly after the election, Fayose quickly paid six month salaries and furniture allowances of political office holders, then what becomes of our teeming workers?

“It was sad that Adesanmi and Adesoye decided to give Fayemi three months moratorium to pay workers when he assumes office, when they were practically doing nothing to ensure that Fayose doesn’t leave office a debtor governor as he promised.

“We hereby declare indefinite strike commencing from today and only the national secretariats of both TUC and NLC can negotiate on our behalf, because we no longer trust the state leaderships of the two congresses,” Aluko said while addressing the workers.

Reacting to the development, Adesoye, described the dissolution as not only illegal, null and void but a move which flies in the face of the law as prescribed by International Labour Organization (ILO).

The TUC chairman also refuted the accusation that the labour leaders collected the sum of ₦14 million to mobilize support for Fayose in the recently held governorship election, alleging that the ex-labour leaders were only trying to malign their personalities to gain recognition from the state governor-elect, Kayode Fayemi.