The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) have embarked on an indefinite strike leaving thousands of Nigerians who have turned up for registration at their various offices stranded.
The notice for the strike action was contained in a statement signed by the President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, NIMC branch, Lucky Michael and its Secretary, Odia Victor.
The communique is the aftermath of a meeting convened by the association to discuss the state of the exposure of staff members to Covid-19 and the salary structure and its representation in the annual appropriation and irregularities in the conduct of promotion exercise amongst other welfare matters.
According to some reports, members of the association decided to go on strike to demand for better welfare packages from the government, more allowances for the registration of National Identity Number (NIN), which they described as an extra duty.
They also decried the lack of protective kits at their offices, which leaves them exposed to contracting the coronavirus disease as they attend to a huge crowd of applicants daily.
The statement from the association partly reads, “Consequent upon the just concluded congress of the above-mentioned association that took place on January 6, 2020, the unit executive directs all members of grade level 12 and below in the head office and state offices to report to their respective duty posts tomorrow January 7, 2020, and do nothing.
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All members at the local government offices and special centres are advised to stay away from their various centres as a task force and implementation committees would be on parade to ensure total compliance to the directive.”
Apart from the demand for allowance, the workers also told Channels Television that the government does not care about their safety.
They decried the lack of personal protective equipment at the office, saying they could get infected with COVID-19 as they attend to hundreds of residents daily.
The association also noted that staff members were infected with Covid-19 and adequate measures have not been taken to curtail its spread
