Some passengers trying to board flights from Ibadan airport, Alakia to Abuja were, on Monday, stranded due to the nationwide strike embarked upon by Nigerian workers.
The main entrance of the airport was under lock and key, while no vehicular movement was allowed into the airport premises.
According to reports, the chopper carrying the Inspector-General of Police (I-G), Kayode Egbetokun, was billed to land at the airport on Monday morning, with the Commissioner of Police in Oyo State, Adebola Hamzat, scheduled to welcome him.
However, Hamzat’s convoy, which was almost denied access to the airport, was later allowed in to pick the I-G.
Speaking with newsmen, one of the stranded passengers at the airport, Mrs Bolanle Ehinfun, said the strike should have been prevented by the Federal Government because the organised labour had given them enough time.
Ehinfun, a retired banker, said she had been at the airport since 8 am, saying she spent about N10,000 on her transportation to the place.
“Now, they are saying the flight is cancelled due to the strike and this will cost me another N10,000 to go back home.
“I have also spent N5,000 on feeding at the airport before they announced the cancellation of the flight.
“Government is not considering the masses,” she said.
Ehinfun, who noted that the strike had disrupted many businesses, said the government should have considered the implications of the industrial action and prevented it.
Also speaking, one of the passengers who preferred anonymity, said she was going to Abuja for a training-the-trainer programme on Citizens’ Mobility and Mortality in Nigeria.
The passenger said the programme could not start because he was the master trainer and could not go.
He said though the organised labour had a point on their demands for the new minimum wage, they should not have shut down the airport and other essential services.
“The N60,0000 minimum wage proposed by the federal government is too small; even N100,000 is small,” he said.
According to him, President Bola Tinubu is trying but the state governors are not helping matters by not using the resources coming to them to better the lives of the masses.
