Rented Government ‘Protesters’ Queue For Payment After Pro-fuel Subsidy Rally

By SaharaReporters, New York

To the surprise and chagrin of many today in Abuja, a rented pro-fuel subsidy crowd laid siege on Labour House in Abuja today to pressurize the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to accept the removal of the subsidy.
They then promptly queued up and collected their 1000 Naira “performance” allowance per head from the Federal Government agents that recruited them in front of bemused NLC officials!
A majority of the members were illiterate local Gbagyi women and unemployed youths recruited from villages surrounding the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Their leader, one Isah Mohammed, could not offer a convincing explanation to NLC officials about their mission, and most of the people following him did not really know why they were recruited.

Jaiye Gaskia, Convener of the United Action for Democracy (UAD) said of the shameless act of the rented crowd.
“We are here and for very good reasons too, a government that claims it has our interests at heart, refused to listen to us; implements a decision that immediately made life more brutish and unbearable for us; then sets up a committee to negotiate with us after stating that the decision is irreversible; is going to all lengths to tell blatant lies to discredit and dismiss our protests - including renting a crowd of unemployed youths to lay a siege on LABOUR HOUSE today in Abuja; and then knowing that its lies and intimidation will not work.”