No agreement yet,strike continues,says Labour  Newsdiaryonline/Abuja Thur Jan  12,2012

And the protest continues

It  has emerged that the meeting between the federal government and labour ended in a deadlock this night .”All I can tell you is that there was no agreement and the strike continues”,a n official of Labour told Newsdiaryonline this night.

This puts paid to the rumour circulated apparently by regime sympathizers even before the meeting commenced that the strike would end tonight.An official of labour said “government is trying to negotiate , but labour’s position is very clear on this matter”.Other reports however said a compromise was being worked out.Details of such compromise are not known yet.And significantly said the labour source, there is no agreement yet.

There were equally conflicting reports of when the next meeting with government would hold.Though an official told Newsdiaryonline that meetings with government will continue Friday other reports say Saturday is the next scheduled date for labour to meet government.

PENGASSAN has however warned that it would shut down oil platforms midnight on Saturday.It may therefore come as no surprise that government has begun  a race against time to avert the shut down of Nigeria’s economic nerve centre,a move that  is certain to have international implications. And the effect of that could be devastating to the government.

So far, Labour has held on to its battle cry, No retreat, No surrender.There were even tweets by young Nigerians this evening  that if Labour settles for anything more than N65 per litre, Nigerians will occupy labour.But others have also argued that it was probable that a slightly higher rate could be agreed upon.

For now, the strike and OccupyNigeria remains alive.Newsdiaryonline saw the occupyNigeria crowd at the AP Plaza junction,Abuja  at 9.00 PM  and they  did not seem like people ready to quit easily.