Africa Press-Nigeria:
A serious showdown is looming between the civil servants and Rivers Governor, Nyesom Wike over disagreements on industrial actions.
It was gathered at the weekend the workers under the auspices of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) were mobilising for a protest on Tuesday.
The aggrieved workers were said to have turned deaf ears to explanations by the government that a court order had outlawed industrial actions by Organised Labour in the state pending determination of a suit filed against the TUC and the NLC by the State Government.
Commissioner for Information and Communications, Paulinus Nsirim and Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Prof. Zacchaus Adangor, during two different media engagements at the weekend, laboured to explain the court orders to workers in the state.
Nsirim said the order, which was issued by the National Industrial Court sitting in Lagos, stopped labour unions from engaging in industrial actions adding that copies of the order had been served to the unions.
Nsirim’s position was also confirmed by the Justice Commissioner, Prof. Zacchaeus Adangor, who said all the defendants had been duly served with the order of interim injunction and they could not claim otherwise.
He said the affidavits of service had been filed in the registry of the court after substituted means of service was used insisting that any action against the order amounted to contempt of court.
“Every disobedience of an order of court constitutes contempt of court.
The Organised Labour is therefore warned against any act of overt or subtle disobedience of the substituting order,” he said
But national and state leadership of labour dismissed the order, saying workers’ protest must go on as planned in Rivers.
The President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, was quoted in a statement as warning Wike against letting any harm come the way of the workers during the protest.
