NLC, TUC accuse Imo govt of abducting president

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) Wednesday evening accused the Imo State government of working with the police to abduct their President, Joe Ajaero.

Ajaero was whisked away by police operatives attached to the Imo State police command during the congress protest in the state earlier on Wednesday.

The organized labour was protesting the alleged neglect of workers’ welfare by the state government.

In a statement signed by their secretaries – Emmanuel Ugboaja (NLC) and Nuhu Toro (TUC), the unions lamented that the Imo State government has continued to use instruments of violence and intimidation against workers in the state.

They urged President Bola Tinubu to intervene in the matter.

The statement read: “Just as Nigerian workers gathered earlier this morning led by the leadership of the two Labour centres to demonstrate our outrage over the serial and habitual abuse and violation of the rights of workers in the state, the government unleashed blood-curdling mayhem on the workers.

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“Earlier in the morning, policemen had tried to disperse workers who were gathering at the state NLC secretariat without success. This was followed in the usual manner by ‘thugs’ who were stationed very close to the Secretariat in several Hilux and Toyota trucks.

“These ‘thugs’ were later to unleash mayhem on the few workers who had already gathered, smashing car windscreens, delivering matchet cuts on some, stabbing many, and inflicting all manners of injuries on the workers. GSM handsets were snatched, Laptops taken away, and money were forcefully taken away by the hoodlums.

“As if that damage was not enough, the President of the NLC, Comrade Joe Ajaero, arrived at the venue accompanied by a few individual workers to inspect the carnage and to provide the necessary leadership for the trade union action to continue, only to be met by Policemen of the Imo State Police Command who came in their numbers and in several trucks.

“They (Police) eventually bundled the President into their waiting van and whisked him away to an unknown destination, where he is still being held incommunicado as we write.

“This latest action of the state government and the police further demonstrates our earlier cries to Nigerians on the level of violence and impunity going on in Imo State. If the President of Congress can be abducted in broad daylight and taken to an unknown destination by the police and the State Governor, imagine what they have been doing to workers and trade union leaders in the state!”

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