Nasarawa: NLC Threatens to Shutdown State Over Sack of Female Worker for Facebook Comment

The NLC has threatened a shutdown following the shocking sack of a health worker in Nassarawa state after she broke the news of Lassa Fever outbreak in the state on social media.

Miss Ruqaiyyat Tijjani Usman

Governor Umaru Tanko Almakura of Nasarawa has come under heavy criticism over thesacking a female worker in the employ of the State civil service, Miss Ruqaiyyat Tijjani Usman, over comments she made on her Facebook page.

Ruqaiyyat, a staff with the state Ministry of Justice, had her appointment terminated with effect from February 25, 2016, for comments on the purported demonstration by a section of civil servants against the just suspended strike action and the way the state government was handling the Lassa Fever outbreak in the state which led to the death of a health worker with the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital, Lafia.

She highlighted what she termed anti-labour “stage managed” protest organised across the state in a post which read: “I can see some political thugs protesting and not professionals; are we going down this way? I weep for my state.”

A reporter gathered that upon receiving a printed copy of the post and the comments and discourse it had generated from the office of the special adviser on Command Centre, Governor Al-Makura, summoned her to his office last Monday morning where he was said to have assured her of her sack from the service.

LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that pleas from her father, Tijjani Usman, a former commissioner in his administration and intervention from traditional rulers and other concerned citizens have failed to reverse the decision to terminate of her appointment.

In reaction, labour leaders and human rights activists have slammed the governor’s action and decision, threatening to embark on a fresh strike if the decision was not reversed within the shortest possible time.

The Nasarawa State chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Abdullahi Adeka, said by Monday, the leadership of trade unions will meet with the state attorney-general and commissioner of Justice and if the decision was not reversed within 24 hours, they would be forced to shut down the state in a fresh strike action.