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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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Partial success recorded in Borno
ONLY partial successes were recorded in Borno State by the sit-at-home strike organised by Labour over the latest fuel price increase.
While commercial buses plied the roads in Maiduguri, the state secretariat was virtually deserted even though the gates were open.
However, most banks did not open for business.
Some senior government officials were also sighted in their offices, including Governor Ali Modu Sheriff.
When The Guardian visited the State Secretariat at about 9 a.m., 90 per cent of the workers did not turn up for work as they have heeded the directives of the NLC boss to sit at home until the Federal Government reverts to the old price of N48 per litre of petrol.
Reacting to the partial observance of the strike, Mallam Kaka Yelwa, a retired soldier, said that the NLC had been embarking on several strikes without achieving much.
Although he supported Labour's struggle against the incessant fuel price increases, he lamented that it is the masses or the less privileged in the society that bears the brunt of such strikes.
He urged the leadership of Labour to adopt another strategy where the objectives of strike could be achieved with minimum costs and casualties.
At the Maiduguri Monday Market, the story was not quite different. All the five major gates to the market were, however, open to traders and customers that wanted to transact their businesses.
Oil marketers, however, took a precautionary measure on the safety of their filling stations.
One of the eight stations on Airport Road shut all the entrances to the filling stations.
Two filling stations were, however, opened during the strike - Halima and Agip.
While defending the action of the station managers in selling fuel, a fuel attendant, Malama Fatima Bukar, said: "We are not supposed to embark on strike because the distribution and sale of petroleum products is one of the essential services that is required by law."
The same, she said, applies to doctors, security agents, fire servicemen and women and journalists in the country.`
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