El-Rufai Challenges The NLC To Protest In Kaduna Again

Nasir El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State, has challenged the Nigerian Labour Congress to return to Kaduna to protest once more.

The governor alleged the NLC leadership was paid from Abuja to organize the last protest in Kaduna in a radio broadcast on Thursday night in Kaduna.

The NLC was protesting against the state government’s decision to fire thousands of workers, claiming that it was wasting too much of the state’s budget on civil servants.

After three days of the five-day warning strike, the federal government intervened and brought the two groups to the negotiating table.

Mr El-Rufai, on the other hand, has not changed his tone since the cease-fire.

“We know what happened, the NLC were paid from Abuja to come to Kaduna and protest and we know who gave them money, we will soon expose them,” Mr El-Rufai said in the interview.

He said the NLC staged the protest without any concrete evidence that the state had retrenched public servants inappropriately.

“Everything the NLC said was a lie, the state government did not sack any civil servant. In fact as I speak to you now, the state government is screening the credentials of the over 30,000 civil servants in the state. It is based on that that we are going to releive those we find guilty of their employment.

“Some civil servant have fake certificates, some are using other people’s certificates. We are checking all that and when we finish we will do away with them. So what the NLC is saying about the state is wrong.”