National Union of Civil Engineering Construction, Furniture and Wood Workers (NUCECFWW) on Monday lamented the rising wave of hostage taking in the Niger Delta which is adversely affecting the construction industry in the region apart from giving the country a bad image.

National President of the union, Comrade Samuel Adeoye who spoke at the opening of the union's trade union zonal seminar held in the Plateau State capital also expressed concern over the bad condition of the country's highways which have made them death traps.

He described as barbaric the kidnap of innocent children or aged parents of people who are held as hostages for ransom noting that the situation was "killing the socio-economic prospect of the nation."

On the state of the roads, he said the country's highways have become death traps where lives and others resources are wasted calling on the various governments to do something about them.

The union also lamented the state of the economy describing as sad that the seven-point agenda of the Yar'Adua Administration was not being implemented with sincerity.

"This is simply because of the interference from World Bank, World Trade Organization and International Monetary Fund (IMF) with their neo-liberal prescriptions which tend to deepen the poverty situation and undermine the capacity of the economy to create wealth", he noted.

Comrade Adeoye called for an urgent review of the national minimum wage in line with current realities as according to him, "wages and salary cannot match the food crisis, inflation, devaluation of the Naira and lack of infrastructural facilities".

It condemned government's insensitivity to the rising prices of diesel and kerosene which he said had further impoverished many Nigerians.

Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State in a message delivered by the Commissioner for Lands and Survey, Nanle Dashan commended the union for organizing the training for members noting that such programmes are good to empower workers for the task ahead.