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.

The chopper carrying 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, Mr Hamzat’s convoy, which was almost denied access to the airport, was later allowed in to pick the IGP.

Speaking with journalists, one of the stranded passengers at the airport, Bolanle Ehinfun, said the strike should have been prevented by the federal government because the organised labour had given them enough time.

Ms Ehinfun, a retired banker, said she had been at the airport since 8:00 a.m., 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.

“Government is not considering the masses,” she said.

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.

He said that 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.

(NAN)