By Taye Obateru

Jos –  Bank customers were stranded in the Plateau State capital,  yesterday, as bank workers joined the strike called by the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress, TUC, to protest the non implementation of the N18,000 minimum wage by the state government.

Many of the customers who were locked out by the banks said they had thought the strike only involved civil servants and not bank workers.

Some customers were, however, lucky as they had finished transacting their businesses in some of the banks before labour officials prevailed on the workers to join the strike.

Customers who had their ATM cards were seen on long queues in some of the banks making withdrawals.

Last attempts by the state government to stall the strike using the Fidelis Tapgun-led State Elders Committee had failed as labour insisted on nothing short of the implementation of the minimum wage.

Activities were also paralyzed at most government offices as workers stay away from work. The workers had suspended an initial strike to allow for negotiations but the expected progress in negotiations did not materialize.