The Nigeria Labour Congress has directed a full escalation of the continued strike by employees of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, describing the economic motion as a “needed and heroic response” to alleged wage violations, intimidation and systematic suppression of employees’ rights.
Talking in Abuja on Friday, NLC President, Joe Ajaero, declared the union’s agency assist for the employees working below the Joint Unions Motion Congress, saying the Congress stood “very strongly” with them.
He maintained that the conduct of the FCTA management amounted to {economic} sabotage and bureaucratic oppression.
In keeping with the labour centre, the failure to pay 5 months’ Wage Award and excellent promotion arrears was “not an administrative lapse however a brazen denial of employees’ professional earnings.”
Ajaero mentioned, “It is a direct assault on employees’ livelihoods and a violation of the constitutional assure of remuneration.
“The non-remittance of pension contributions since Might 2025 and Nationwide Housing Fund deductions condemns employees to a destitute previous age.
That is capital accumulation by dispossession, plain and easy, and it’s unacceptable.”
The NLC additionally accused FCTA authorities of resorting to “fascistic techniques” in opposition to staff, together with intimidation, restrictions on cellphone use and the detention of workers accused of talking out.
“These actions are designed to cripple employees’ solidarity and silence dissent, in utter contempt of constitutional rights and worldwide labour conventions.”
As a part of its decision, the Congress instructed all affiliated unions inside the FCT to completely be a part of and intensify the strike, warning that the dispute had now grow to be a collective battle for each employee within the nation’s capital.
The NLC additional directed employees to converge in giant numbers on the Nationwide Industrial Courtroom on Monday, January 26, 2026, when the matter is predicted to return up for listening to.
“Let the courtroom premises be full of the dignified presence of the working class, sending an unmistakable message of our unity and willpower.”
In a uncommon step, the Congress additionally ordered day by day obligatory prayer and solidarity periods from 8:00am to five:00pm at designated places throughout the FCT, describing the train as an ethical and non secular reinforcement of the employees’ marketing campaign.
As well as, all commerce unions within the territory had been instructed to instantly construct alliances with civil society {groups}, college students, group activists and different mass actions, signalling plans to widen the strike right into a broader social protest.
“That is not only a labour dispute; it’s a folks’s wrestle in opposition to an insensitive administration,” the NLC declared.
The Congress warned the FCTA management and political authorities that employees’ tolerance had run out and that failure to fulfill the calls for would provoke even stiffer resistance.
“Their ultimatum was and stays our ultimatum. Their calls for are our calls for,” Ajaero mentioned.
Addressing the placing employees immediately, the NLC President added: “Your wrestle is our wrestle. Your victory will probably be a victory for each exploited employee in Nigeria. Stand agency. No retreat, no give up. Staff united can by no means be defeated.”