The labour unions in the country, the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress on Wednesday held their protests rally over the hike in the pump price of petrol.

In Abuja, the nation’s capital, the workers started their march from the Unity Fountain through the Federal Secretariat to the National Assembly, where it turned ugly, as some of the protesting workers broke down the gate. Earlier, the protesters asked security operatives stationed at the legislative building to open the gate but the security operatives refused to do so, which led to the gate being pulled down.

Later on, Senators Ali Ndume and Ireti Kingibe addressed the protesting workers and asked for 1 week to reach an acceptable resolution, which both parties will agree upon.

While speaking, Senator Ndume pleaded that protesters could “beat them but not kill them.” He added “If you are beating a person, you beat them to teach them a lesson; killing them will become a problem. So we are begging, beat us but don’t kill us. Please, Mr (NLC) President, give the Senate a chance; if we fail you, you can go back to your position.

“The Senate is going to get involved. Please just give us one week to resolve everything. Call off the strike for one week, and if we fail, then you can take further actions.”

And, following the plea, the NLC leadership accepted and agreed to pause the protest for the one week as requested by the Senate.

Before the Senators’ address, the NLC Chairman, Joe Ajaero, read out some of the demands of the NLC, which prompted the strike to the senators, after which he officially handed over the letter containing the requests to them.