Dare Babalola
The National Industrial Court of Nigeria, sitting in Abuja, has granted an interlocutory injunction filed by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and the FCT Administration, compelling workers under the Joint Union Action Committee to immediately suspend their ongoing strike action.
The claimants had dragged the Chairman of the Joint Union Action Committee, Rifkatu Iortyer, and its Secretary, Abdullahi Umar Saleh, before the court in suit number NICN/ABJ/17/2026, seeking an order restraining the defendants and their agents from embarking on any industrial action, picketing, or lockout.
Delivering his ruling on Tuesday, Justice E.D. Subilim held that although the matter before the court amounted to a trade dispute and had met the required legal conditions, the defendants’ right to embark on industrial action was not absolute.
He ruled that workers were prohibited from participating in a strike once a dispute had been referred to the National Industrial Court, adding that where such a strike was already ongoing, it must cease pending the determination of the case.
“An order of interlocutory injunction is hereby granted, restraining the claimants and representatives… from further embarking on any industrial action against the claimant.
“The order shall remain in force, pending the determination of this suit,” Justice Subilim said.
Recall that workers of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, with the backing of the Nigeria Labour Congress, on Monday picketed the National Industrial Court in Abuja as part of an ongoing total and indefinite strike over unresolved labour disputes.
The NLC, this week, declared full support for the industrial action and urged affiliate unions to mobilise, calling the strike “a necessary and heroic response to a vicious cocktail of neoliberal attacks, gross administrative impunity, and a systematic violation of the fundamental rights of workers by the FCTA management and the political leadership.”
Placards carried by the protesters bore inscriptions such as “Wike must go!!”, “Abuja no be Rivers”, “Pay promotion arrears”, “Enough is Enough” and “No working tools”.
The Joint Unions Action Congress (JUAC), which is leading the strike, said it remains open to talks but “will not succumb to misinformation, intimidation or divide-and-rule tactics,” and vowed the strike would continue until core demands are met.
FCTA officials claimed that progress has been made and insist 10 of the workers’ 14 demands have been addressed including the commencement of five months’ wage-award payments and settlement of long-standing hazard and rural allowances while the remaining issues are being handled administratively.
