By Aluta News
April 11, 2022
Union leaders in the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) have rejected the picketing of the agency’s headquarters in Abuja on Monday and called for dialogue in resolving labour-related matters.
Some officials of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists had blocked the entrance of the agency’s headquarters, claiming they were protesting the routine transfer of an editorial member of staff, Collins Yakubu-Hammer.
The union leaders, however, said after a meeting with police officers in charge of Central Area and officials of the FCT Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists that every labour agitation must end in dialogue.
Speaking on the development, the President of Senior Staff Association of Statutory Corporations and Government Owned Companies (SSASCGOC) in NAN, Ogechi James, said her union was committed to promoting peace.
” We want peace in the Agency. I believe in dialogue and negotiation. So I look forward to a date set for a meeting between both sides,” she said.
In a similar vein, Hamza Ibrahim, the Vice Chairman of the Radio, Television , Theatre and Arts Worers’ Union of Nigeria (RATTAWU), rejected the picketing of the agency’s headquarters, saying the workers were unaware of the development.
” We, RATTAWU, hereby reject the picketing of our office even as we support dialogue as a way of resolving the dispute at hand.
”As a mediator in the matter, we want Collins Yakubu-Hammer and the FCT Council of NUJ to toe the path of peace in resolving the matter between both parties,” he said.
Abubakar Waziri, the spokesman of the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation Technical and Recreational Employees, on his part, also pleaded for dialogue.
The agency, while responding to enquiries, had clarified that transfers in NAN are administrative procedures that could affect any member of staff due to exigencies of work.
It added that at no time did NAN management reach an agreement with union executives not to transfer workers.
The agency listed no fewer than five union leaders who had been transferred before Yakubu-Hammer’s transfer, describing it as administrative procedures.
It said Yakubu-Hammer’s transfer was as a result of the vacancy created in the Pankshin District Office with the transfer of his predecessor, Thompson Yamput, who had spent eight years in the office as Correspondent.
The Agency maintained that Yakubu-Hammer ‘s refusal to report at his duty post was an act of disobedience to lawful directive, a misconduct in the public service.
It also stated that no union official was being victimised or harassed, stressing that Yakubu-Hammer had even been paid his transfer allowance and refused to go.
NAN