Cash Crunch: Lanour extends ultimatum by two weeks -thewill.com
March 28, (THEWILL) – The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has extended its planned action against the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over cash crunch by two weeks.

The NLC had last week, issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to mandate the CBN and commercial banks to end the cash scarcity, warning of a nationwide protest and the picketing of the apex bank and its branches across the country, from Wednesday, March 29.

Speaking at a press conference in conjunction with the Trade Union Congress (TUC), in Abuja, on Tuesday, NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said they had decided to give the CBN two more weeks to monitor the level of their compliance with the demand.

Ngige, who spoke at the weekly Ministerial Briefing organised by the Presidential Communication Team at the State House, Abuja, on Tuesday, said the threat of protest by the NLC against the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been averted.

His words: “They said they will call up their National Executive Council meeting because the initial decision to give that ultimatum was given by this same Council.

“Members of the Council reside in the states and the local governments so they will come up today, which is Tuesday, the 28th, to review the situation because much as it is, the important thing is that we have emphasised to them that we have apprehended this dispute.

“By Section 7:8 of the Trade Dispute Act, once the Minister apprehends and starts conciliation on it, you maintain status quo ante bellum. So they have gone back now to review the situation.

“If they’re not satisfied with what they see, they will come back to me and I’ll invite the CBN again.

“But for now, the issue of discussion is no longer strike, the issue of discussion is implementation and how far it’s gone and how far it affects Nigerian workers and the general population.

“So that is it, the final decision will be done today by NEC and they will then do a resolution, of course, inform me and CBN what their resolution is. But like I said, we have apprehended and we are now conciliating.”