The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has warned that any worker of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) who fails to comply with a court order directing a return to work will face disciplinary action.<\/p>\n
Wike issued the warning on Tuesday while speaking with journalists in Abuja, shortly after the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) ordered striking FCTA workers to suspend their industrial action.<\/p>\n
The minister stressed that disobedience to a valid court order would not be tolerated, noting that enforcement of the directive would begin on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre there no consequences for disobeying the law? Must we allow people to break the law flagrantly? I have given them a window, but from tomorrow, if they don\u2019t come to work, we will apply the big stick,\u201d Wike said.<\/p>\n
He further warned that any attempt to block government offices or facilities would attract decisive action, adding that offenders would be made examples of.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom tomorrow, if we see anybody who wants to block the gate, they will be made a scapegoat. The law must take its place,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
Wike maintained that the FCTA had shown willingness to resolve the dispute through dialogue, explaining that meetings had already been held between management and labour union representatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been disposed to dialogue. They have met with management, so what are the issues? If genuinely they want dialogue, then we\u2019ll talk,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
However, the minister warned against what he described as blackmail and intimidation, insisting that such tactics would not sway the administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if it\u2019s on blackmail and intimidation, then we will not agree. If they like, they can hire all the civil servants in Abuja; it\u2019s not my business,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Court orders suspension of strike
\nEarlier on Tuesday, the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, sitting in Abuja, ordered workers under the FCTA to suspend their ongoing strike action.<\/p>\n
Delivering his ruling, Justice Emmanuel Subilim held that although the matter before the court qualifies as a trade dispute, the right of workers to embark on industrial action is not absolute.<\/p>\n
The judge ruled that once a dispute has been formally referred to the National Industrial Court, any ongoing strike must be suspended pending the final determination of the case.<\/p>\n
Justice Subilim noted that allowing the strike to continue while the matter is before the court would undermine judicial authority and due process.<\/p>\n
The ruling followed a suit filed by Wike and the FCTA against the leadership of the Joint Unions Action Committee (JUAC), challenging the legality of the strike.<\/p>\n
The court subsequently directed all parties to maintain the status quo ante and adjourned the matter for further hearing.<\/p>\n
FCTA workers had embarked on an indefinite strike last week over what they described as the authorities\u2019 failure to address long-standing labour and welfare issues.<\/p>\n
The strike led to the shutdown of operations across several major government offices within the Federal Capital Territory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has warned that any worker of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) who fails to comply with a court order directing a return to work will face disciplinary action. Wike issued the warning on Tuesday while speaking with journalists in Abuja, shortly after the National […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":97062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,7],"tags":[352,516,7912,7911,742],"class_list":["post-97370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jobs","category-news","tag-court","tag-fcta","tag-industrial","tag-scapegoat","tag-wike"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/97062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}