Labour Minister shuts down factory over unsafe practices in Ogun

The Metal Manufacturing Company, "Gbara," located close to Sotubo in the Sagamu local government area of Ogun State, has been ordered to close by Hon. Nkiru Onyejiosha, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, due to the company's workers' exposure to health risks.

The company, which produces batteries and works with lead, refused to provide safety equipment for its employees in spite of repeated warnings from the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment's Occupational Safety and Health department.

According to Onyejiosha, she was compelled to come and make sure that the law of the land was upheld because of the company's management's unwillingness to follow national laws and make sure that its employees follow international standards.

Around 2:00 PM, Onyejiosha broke into the factory and declared that the administration of President Bola Tinubu would never support any act of violence against its citizens' health.

 She said, “After being told of what is happening here at this company, I told my staff to come around and instruct them to do what the law says, because they deal with lead which is quite harmful, I told them that the company should do some cleaning up and ensure that their workers are properly kitted so that their lives will not just be endangered unnecessarily, but I later got the report that the company refused to heed the advice.

“So I said, let me come here from Abuja to see things for myself and what I saw was worse than what was described to me. It was totally awful and unacceptable.

“I have never seen the kind of irresponsibility I am seeing at this factory from any manufacturer though, they are telling me that theirs is still better, but I have told them that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration will never tolerate this illegality, especially for those who considered the country as dumping ground and where they could get cheap labour and do things to suit them, making money at the expense of Nigerians.

“I have seen things for myself, we met the workers without their boots on, packing things with their hands, no helmet on their heads. No, this is wrong because those running this company won’t dare do this in their country. So, we have gone round and seen things for ourselves and I have pronounced that the company is prohibited until the management is ready to do things as it is provided for in the laws of our land.

“President Tinubu’s government is really against these sharp practices and for those who are not ready to operate according to the rules of the land, they are free to wound up and go, they should stop subjecting our people to such dehumanising conditions under the guise of providing employment for them”.

Source