Following the planned nationwide hunger protest scheduled to hold on August 1 across the Federation, the Imo State Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, Samuel Udeh has enjoined members of the union not to join the protest.
He said it would cause more harm than good.
He gave the warning to fellow unionists during an emergency meeting of the State Executive Committee, SEC, of the Union, held on Tuesday in Owerri.
Addressing the executives, Udeh noted that though a peaceful demonstration by citizens to express the unfair treatment being meted out on them by their leaders was a constitutional right, this particular right had been abused and wrongly carried out, which according to him had caused more pains, sorrows and setbacks.
The NURTW boss urged the members to resist the temptation of joining the planned protest.
He believed that dialogue with the leaders remained the best approach of getting things done rightly in the country rather than resorting to protest.
“The risk and possibility of the protest being hijacked by miscreants and hoodlums who may want to use it to perpetrate evil and cause havoc in the process should be a concern to Imo citizens.
“We are not disputing the fact that there is hunger and hardship in the land, but we must be careful not to allow those with evil intentions of destroying lives and property to prevail”, Udeh said.
In their separate speeches, some of the executive members agreed with what the Chairman said and commended him for calling the meeting which they said was timely as it availed the opportunity for the members to know the position of the Union as regards to the protest.
They also acknowledged the Chairman’s effort in fighting for the general good of the members as he always carried members along in the scheme of things.
They generally asserted that the protest would not in any way favour them as drivers, but would rather be to their own detriment and vowed not to be part of it.