Nigeria, May 17 -- The five-day warning strike called by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) in Kaduna State kicked off Monday morning, with officials of the union picketing government ministries and parastatals and denying civil servants access to the state secretariat.

Civil servants, in their hundreds, stood at the gate of the state secretariat on the popular Independence Way on Monday morning after union officials picketed the facility.

The NLC had called on all unions to join in the warning strike from Monday in its effort to force the state government to rescind its plan to sack many civil servants and "rightsize" the state's bureaucracy.

In letters of compliance seen by PREMIUM TIMES, organisations including banks and other finan...