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The leadership of the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees(NULGE) in Oyo State has ordered all its members to stay away from their duty post pending the time the controversy over the administration of local governments in the state would be resolved.
The Chairman of NULGE in the state, Alhaji Bayo Titilola-Sodo, disclosed this after an emergency meeting of the State Executive Council(SEC) in Ibadan on Saturday.
Citing security reasons for its decision, he said the no work order to its members across the state was in view of the friction between the sacked members of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria ( ALGON) and the newly constituted local government caretaker committee members in the state.
The NULGE chairman stated that the executive directed its members to stay away from work pending when the ongoing feud between the two warring parties would be resolved, adding that the decision taken by the highest policy making body of the union was binding on all council workers, and the resumption date would be determined later.
“Our members are in fear of possible outbreak of violence. We have been following the news in the social media and the newspapers and sometimes letters were published. We don’t know the authenticity, but we have reasons to be apprehensive of the safety of our members. Should they go to work and these people take on each other, what happens?
“A few months ago, when one party decided to go to office relying on one authority or the other while the other party is still occupying the office, there were altercations.
“Today, we held a meeting that in order to safeguard the lives of our people, our members should stay away from offices until the weather is clearer, until we know who exactly we are working with and until our safety is guaranteed,” Titilola- Sodo said.
He said no member of NULGE should go to work from Monday, January 27, until further notice and until the situation is clear.
“Until our own security and safety are guaranteed, we shall stay away. We had the State Administrative Council meeting followed by the State Executive Council meeting. The decision was taken by the SEC, which is the highest decision making authority of our union in this state.
“We reviewed the situation on ground and found out that it is in our best interest and in the interest of our members to stay away from work before they turned our offices into battle grounds,” he said.
Asked of the likely punishment to be meted to defaulters, he said: “there would be no defaulter in this case. You can go to work at your own risk; you have been warned; you have been advised to stay away. No-one would be enforcing this, but we believe that our members would comply.”
It would be recalled that the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, on Friday asked the sacked council bosses to liaise with the Commissioner of Police in the state on how to facilitate their resumption back to office.
Adamu had also ordered the Commissioner of Police to ensure that the sacked chairmen return to their offices.