21st February, 2012
There are indication that civil servants in Ogun State, southwest Nigeria, may embark on an indefinite strike over tax deduction in March.
Our correspondent gathered from a reliable source that the workers’ union has called for an emergency State Executive Council and Local Executive Council SEC/LEC meeting tomorrow.
P.M.NEWS further gathered that at the meeting a decision will be taken against what one of the leaders described as exploitative and illegal deduction of tax from the salaries of civil servants in the state.
When our correspondent contacted the chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, in Ogun State, Comrade Akeem Ambali on phone to confirm the situation, he did not pick his calls and he also failed to respond to a text message sent to his phone as at the time of filling this report.
But a source who is a leader from one of the local government councils, and preferred anonymity, told P.M.NEWS that he has received notice of the meeting.
According to him,”from our findings, the governor has been illegally deducting our salaries and I can confirm to you that there is no law backing that. We will be in Abeokuta tomorrow (Wednesday) for the meeting and by God’s grace, we will take our position and
industrial action may be the way out because the governor may not agree with us.”
Our correspondent’s findings revealed that the Federal Government signed into law the new tax bill in December 2011 and this was reflected in the January 2012 salaries of workers at the federal level.
A source from the governor’s office told our correspondent that the governor is not ready to comply with that for now, saying “the state government is still waiting for the outcome of the Joint Tax Board set up by the federal government. When the committee’s report is out, then, we will know the next line of action to take.”
Reacting to the government’s stand, an executive member of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, in Ogun said: “Can you see that the governor has enjoyed the illegal deduction? Why should he be saying that he is waiting for the committee’s report? Is the committee report superior to the constitution? We are not going to take it easy with him. We are going to issue a communique tomorrow wherein
we will give the governor an ultimatum that he must not deduct tax from the workers’ salaries begining from this month of February 2012.”
From all indications, the stage is set for the strike which may likely commence in the first week of March.
—Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta