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Fuel Subsidy Removal: TUC Asks FG To Revert To Status Quo

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has urged the Federal Government to revert its decision to remove subsidy until negotiations with the labour unions are finalised.

TUC President, Festus Osifo, stated this while addressing newsmen at the end of an emergency meeting of the congress’s National Executive Council (NEC) at the weekend in Abuja.

Osifo, who conveyed the TUC’s displeasure with the Federal Government, said that the Congress expected the government to have consulted the organised labour before making the unilateral decision to end the subsidy.

He said: “Having noted this, we wish to state that the NEC-in- Session resolved that discussions with the Federal Government should continue while demanding that the government should revert to the status quo ante.

“The status quo ante should be maintained while discussions continue as we had a meeting with the government on Wednesday.

“During that discussion, they gave us a list of all the things they would do and they also demanded to know our thinking and what we are putting up.

“We told them the lists of the things we want to put forward, we will not submit them now, but put them forward to our organs, to discuss and seek a mandate from them of the things we can put forward.”

He noted that government’s response to the demands of the Congress would determine its next line of action.

“We will wait till Sunday when we will meet with the representatives of the government.

“Once we are done with that meeting then the TUC is going to put its demands forward, it is how they react to those demands that will determine our next line of action, ”he said.

SUN NEWS