The strike action embarked upon by workers in Ogun State on Thursday paralysed activities of government in the state.
Public primary and secondary schools across the state were also shut and the pupils sent back home.
Our correspondent, who was at the Oke Mosan Governor’s Office state secretariat, where ministries, agencies and departments of the government are located, observed that many of the offices were deserted as most civil servants did not turn up for work.
A handful of civil servants were, however, seen loitering around their offices in defiance of the strike action ordered by the organised labour in the state, including the state chapters of the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council, the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress.
Already, the state government had declared the workers’ strike illegal and threatened to invoke the ‘no-work, no-pay’ rule against those who have abandoned their duty posts.
But the organised labour in the state called the strike after the expiration of the 21-day ultimatum they had earlier given the state government.
The organised labour had ordered government workers in the state to embark on an indefinite strike from Thursday if the state government failed to meet its demands over the 12 months unremitted cooperative deductions and other issues.
Suspected hoodlums were, however, said to have attacked some labour leaders and civil servants, who had converged on the state NLC secretariat in Abeokuta at about 8am.
A victim of the attack, who declined to be identified, told our correspondent that the suspected thugs arrived at the NLC secretariat in a Toyota Camry car and motorcycles, descending immediately on them with blows and kicks.
He claimed that the suspected thugs covered the number plate of the car they came in to the NLC secretariat.
A labour leader also claimed that the suspected thugs attacked striking workers in various parts of the state capital, including Laderin Estate, Kuto Roundabout and Oke Ilewo.
Meanwhile, armed policemen and operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, have been deployed to the NLC state secretariat located along Abiola Way in Abeokuta.
Also, the two major entrances to the Governor’s Office and the state secretariat in Oke Mosan were being manned by stern-looking security men monitoring the movement of people around the premises.
Pupils of public primary and secondary schools in the state were also observed loitering about as they were sent back home due to the ongoing strike action.
