The Nigeria Labour Congress ( NLC) Oyo State Chapter on Saturday demanded the immediate release and withdrawal of charges levelled against its chairman, Comrade Waheed Olojede and six others in court by the state government.
The NLC accused the state government of forcing the Union to support the planned privatisation of secondary school education by the Abiola Ajimobi-led administration.
While addressing journalists at the union’s secretariat at Agodi, Ibadan, the treasurer, Comrade Bosun Daramola emphasised said that the union’s leaders should not only be released from Agodi prison custody, government should also pay the outstanding salaries and arrears of workers in the state.
Olojede and the six others were arrested by the police and charged to a magistrate court last Friday on a seven-count charge bordering on breach of public peace and damage of public property.
They were accused of disrupting a stakeholders’ meeting organized by the Oyo State government to address issues on the proposed privatisation of selected secondary schools in the state.
The accused unionist could not meet the bail conditions slammed on them by Chief Magistrate Jamiu Adebisi and were remanded in prison custody.
The conditions include two sureties with national identity cards, work identity card, three years tax clearance and a sum of N200,000 for each of the accused persons.
In his speech, Daramola said, “The union was aware that the arrest, arraignment and incarceration of our union leaders was a deliberate gimmick of the Oyo State government to weaken the determination of the union to lead the entire suffering workers in the state.
”The union would like to inform the public and parents of students in public schools in the state that they remain resolute and no amount of arrest and prosecution of the union leaders would deter them from the struggle to rescue public schools in the state from being sold.
”The public educational system in Oyo State and other parts of the country is enmeshed in crisis, characterized by inadequate facilities for proper learning. The union will continue to defend the economic rights of the Nigerians working masses and urge all individuals or religious organizations who may be interested in buying over the public schools to rescind the decision. We say Oyo public schools are not for sale”.
The union also demanded for proper and adequate funding of the education sector, including payment of living wages and other incentives for educational workers and likewise the immediate payment of six months outstanding salaries and pension arrears.
