Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Niger State Chapter, said it will shut down the state if Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago does not desist from appointing politicians into offices in government ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) that were meant for core civil servants.
The state NLC Chairman, Comrade Abdulkareem Idris Lafene, gave this warning in an interview shortly after meeting with the leadership of the 10th assembly at the Niger State House of Assembly, Complex, Minna, on Wednesday.
Comrade Lafene said that the appointment of politicians as Executive Directors of the MDAs was against the civil service rule, as such positions were for career civil servants.
"This issue of executive directors, you know, is not found in any part of the world; we have directors, but we don't have executive directors," he said.
The chairman added that they were in the state house of assembly, being an arm of government for them to call on the governor to stop these appointments.
"The state house of assembly should call on the executive to stop all these appointments; it is their duty, which is why you have three arms of government.
"We have written to the state government; there was no response. That is why we came to the house of assembly to present our paper. If there is no response, we will close down Niger State," he warned.
Earlier, while addressing the 10th state house of assembly members, the NLC chairman said that appointments of politicians as executive directors were illegal and irregular.
He impressed it on the House to, as a matter of urgency, call on the governor to stop the appointments so that labour and government would continue to enjoy their cordial industrial relationship.
The Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Abdulmalik Sarkin Daji, represented by the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Afiniki Eunice Dauda, assured the NLC that their complaint would get to the governor and believed that, as a former parliamentarian, he would listen to them.
The speaker added that all other issues surrounding some MDAs being investigated by the House, especially the Board of Internal Revenue, will all be forwarded to the governor.