Falana stated that states government had more money after the subsidy removal, they could not claim a lack of funds to pay the minimum wage.
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has called on the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of justice to impose sanctions on states failing to pay the earlier agreed and mandated N30,000 minimum wage.
Speaking on Channel Television’s programme "The Morning Brief," on Tuesday, Falana said that the payment of the minimum wage was a legally binding agreement that state governments freely entered into, and state governments failing to honour the deal are in breach of the law.
“Once a new agreement, a new minimum wage becomes the law of the country. The Federal Government has a duty, and the Attorney General of the country has a duty to drag any state government that does not pay to court.
“I mean, the Attorney General can just file a new case, which is a good development, by saying over the years, we have accused state governments of diverting monuments for local governments.”
Falana stated that states government had more money after the subsidy removal, they could not claim a lack of funds to pay the minimum wage.
“There is no state in Nigeria today that cannot pay more than the minimum wage because the government removed fuel subsidy last year and told Nigerians that the money made from that policy shall be [paid to state governments] ” the legal practitioner said.
“I heard you earlier. Oh, some people cannot pay N30,000 minimum wage. It shouldn’t be coming from the government because that is an admission of illegality,” he said.
SaharaReporters reported that the leadership of the National Assembly, including Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives Abbas Tajudeen, along with other principal officers, on Friday, summoned an emergency meeting with the organized labour groups, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), in a bid to prevent the strike and return to the negotiating table.
Presidents of the NLC and TUC, Joe Ajaero and Festus Osifo also attended the meeting.
Follow the Sahara Reporters channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaFClvtH5JM6SSsP7M2Y