* Palliatives committee get one week deadline to finalise proposal
Ekiti State Governor, Mr Biodun Oyebanji has directed a three-man committee of the state government to meet with the leadership of Organised Labour to finalise proposals for palliative measures aimed at cushioning the effect of the subsidy removal on the citizens.
The committee and the labour leaders were given one week to report back to the governor, who will then make a formal pronouncement on the options that are considered implementable.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Yinka Oyebode, said in a statement in Ado Ekiti on Friday that government alone could not take the decision on palliative measures, hence the involvement of the leadership of organised labour.
These, he said, were among were part of the outcome of the governor’s meeting with the leadership of the organised labour in his office on Thursday evening.
Oyebanji said that the palliative measures to be put in place would also take care of pensioners and people in the informal sector of the economy.
The governor, at the meeting, also commended the leadership of labour unions in the state as well as the citizens for their understanding, stressing that government was determined to ease the pains occasioned by the subsidy removal.
In attendance at the meeting were the State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Olatunde Kolapo; Chairman, Trade Union Congress, Comrade Sola Adigun; and Chairman of the Joint negotiating Committee, Comrade Babatope Ajoloko and other officials of the unions.
The government’s three-man committee include the State Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development, Mr Akin Oyebode (chairman), Head of Service, Bamidele Agbede and Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Oyebanji Filani
