Thousands of Organised Labour on Wednesday stormed the Lagos State House of Assembly to protest plans by the House of Representatives to move the minimum wage from the exclusive list to the concurrent list.

The protesters stormed the Assembly entrance with placards, chanting solidarity songs, resisting the plan to move minimum wage to concurrent list.

The protesters comprised the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), Nigerian Union of Local Government Workers (NULGE) and other unions.

They described the bill as obnoxious. The bill was sponsored by Garba Datti, who represents a constituency in Kaduna State.

The placards read: “Stop poverty and hunger! Reverse the price increase now,” “Removing National Minimum wage from exclusive legislative list a declaration of war on Nigerian workers,” among others.

Speaking at the protest, Lagos State Chairman, TUC, Gbenga Ekundayo attacked Datti for being shallow minded and lacking the foresight to think and see ahead, saying assenting to the bill would throw Nigerians into further misery because it would allow private employers to treat their workers as slaves.

According to Ekundayo, people should look ahead and not just think of today, saying that if the National Assembly felt compelled to remove the minimum wage from the exclusive list, then members should also return to their states and demand that federal allocation be stopped, and that each state should then manage its resources.

He said the lawmakers should also return to their constituencies and live according to what their states could afford, adding that as long as the nation operated a federal allocation regime, the minimum wage would remain a national law.

Ekundayo warned that any attempt to do otherwise would be resisted with the last drop of blood, saying that labour would not allow the lawmakers to pauperise them further.

Also, Chairman of NLC, Funmi Sessi described Datti as dishnonourable. She also accused the leaders of working to kill the common man by paying workers starvation wage instead of a living wage.

She said labour had come to the Assembly in peace to register their displeasure against that unpopular bill sponsored against workers.

Sessi said “if you want to sponsor a bill, it is good to call us together because we are all stakeholders. While other countries are looking for ways to give palliative to their people, especially during this Coronavirus pandemic, our own leaders are looking to kill us and take away our livelihood; but we will not allow that.

Addressing the protesters, Nurudeen Solaja-Saka (Ikorodu II), assured that their requests would be delivered to the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Mudasiru Obama, whom he said was on a state assignment.