The last may not have been heard about Wednesday’s alleged abduction and brutalization of the President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Mr. Joe Ajaero.
This is because the organised labour, comprising of the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, has issued a five-day ultimatum to the Police High Command in Abuja to fire the Commissioner of Police, Imo State Command, Mr. Muhammed Barde, and the Area Commander, for their alleged complicity in the incident that happened in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
The Labour leaders also demanded the arrest and prosecution of the Special Adviser to the Imo State governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma, on Special Duties.
Failure to meet these demands, the labour leaders maintained, would leave them with no other option than to embark on a nationwide strike on Wednesday, November 8, 2023.
The Crest recalls that Ajaero was arrested, Wednesday, in Owerri, by the police during a protest march over what the unions described as “serial and habitual abuse and violation” of state government workers’ as well as the non-payment of pensioners and workers for 42 months, an accusation the the Imo State Government has vehemently denied.
They also accused the Uzodinma Administration of declaring thousands of workers/pensioners as ghost workers/pensioners; as well as not properly implementing the national minimum wage.
Giving an eye witness acccount of what happened on the fateful day, the NLC Deputy General Secretary and Ajaero’s Chief of Staff, Mr. Chris Onyeka, said that he was standing with Ajaero when he was reportedly brutalized and arrested.
“As workers were gathering to protest their maltreatment by the state government in Owerri, Imo State and the President of NLC was about addressing the workers, the police came amidst attacks by thugs to arrest Ajaero,” Onyeka told Thisday newspaper.
“Thugs first attacked and dragged Ajaero from the platform before police came to arrest him along with another senior official of the NLC.”
But in its reaction, the state police command denied ever arresting Ajaero, stating that it only took him into “protective custody” to shield him from being armed by “angry protesters” who felt the NLC President merely used the protest as a cover to campaign for the candidate of the Labour Party, LP, in the November 11 gubernatorial election.
The NLC, however, thrashed that argument, accusing Governor Hope Uzodinma of conspiring with the state’s Commissioner of Police to abduct their President.
The union pointedly accused the Imo State government of continually using “the instrument of violence and intimidation” against trade unions and their leadership in the state.
They pleaded with President Bola Tinubu to intervene in the matter as their only offence was to ask the state government to clear the backlog of salaries being owed workers in the state and treat its work force with dignity.