Unions across all spectrum of the economy and have in unison condemned the brutal attack on the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Joe Ajaero in Owerri, Imo State.
The labour leader was allegedly assaulted by the police during a protest on Wednesday, November 1 in Owerri.
“Thoroughly brutalised, his (Ajaero’s) right eye at the time of contact was completely shut,” spokesman for the NLC, Mr Benson Upah said.
He also alleged that the police continued to assault Ajaero after taking him away; causing injuries that shut his right eye.
In a joint press release, the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) said the “police accompanied by thugs inflicted heavy injuries and blows to his (Mr Ajaero’s) head and body, kicking him in the process while dragging him on the ground.”
However, the Imo State police command police denied the report saying Ajaero was attacked by NLC members who were opposed to the union’s plan to carry out a lockdown of the airport and other essential facilities in the state.
Spokesman for the command Mr Henry Okoye, said, contrary to the reports, the police did not arrest the NLC president.
He said the police only took the NLC president “into protective custody” in response to a mob attack against him.
He said Ajaero visited the state as part of the arrangements of the NLC to mobilise workers for their scheduled protest in the state on Wednesday.
He said, in the course of their planning for the protest, suggestions to lock down some essential facilities, particularly an airport, reportedly arose within them, but some workers and other individuals resisted the plot.
Okoye said the disagreement later degenerated into a scuffle and heated argument which resulted in a mob attack against the NLC president.
“Upon receiving this report, the Imo Police Command swiftly deployed police operatives to the scene where the officer in charge exercised his operational discretion by taking the NLC president into protective custody at the State Command Headquarters to ensure the protection of his life and that he was not lynched in the scuffle that followed.
“The commissioner of police (in Imo) thereafter directed that he (Ajaero) should be taken to the police medical services, Owerri, where he would be accorded medical attention as a result of the attack. He has therefore been accorded adequate security cover to proceed on his other legitimate engagements for the day,” he stated.
Nevertheless, the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP) and National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) have jointly condemned the attack on the labour movement leader.
In a statement entitled ‘Brutalisation and abduction of Comrade Ajaero, president of Nigeria Labour Congress’ and signed by Mesrs Ocheme Aba, Frances Akinjole, Abdul RasaqSaidu and Umoh Ofonime for NUATE, ATSSSAN and NAAPE respectively, the unions accused the state government of complicity in the attack on Ajaero.
They alleged that the NLC leader was beaten up by “official thugs” while “officers of the Nigerian Police Force, paid by taxes from workers, did nothing to protect him.”
They also alleged that “after supporting the thugs in their barbaric act against Comrade Ajaero, the police abducted him to a hidden location and further manhandled him.”
It is most unfortunate that this story of sheer barbarism actually happened in 21stCentury Nigeria. No one thought that the Nigerian Police Force could be such a coercive tool in the hands of a government official against the very people they are supposed to protect. This is more perplexing considering the efforts of the current inspector general of police a new face of civility.
In all of this, the only crime of Comrade Ajaero is acting out his statutory role of fighting for the right of Imo State workers as the President of NLC, in implementing the decision of the national executive council of the congress.
‘We stand together… state unequivocally that we stand ready to act as may be directed by NLC to black out Imo State from the aviation map,” the unions said.
Similarly, the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) condemned the arrest and brutalisation of Ajaero.
In a statement issued in Kaduna, the textiles workers condemned “the unwarranted and unprovoked attack, abduction and near murder of Ajaero” by the police and thugs allegedly working with the state government.
President of NUTGTWN, John Adaji, said the mayhem was unleashed on the workers and the NLC president while on “peaceful protest against the violation of the rights of Imo workers by the state government.”
“We are particularly disturbed that this uncivilised action by the Imo governor and the police is taking place in a democracy, which the organised labour fought for, not military dictatorship.
“We reaffirm that workers under the Nigerian Constitution, African Charter of Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) and International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions particularly conventions 87 and 98 on the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining have the right to organise and engage in collective bargaining and social dialogue. It is, therefore, strange that Governor Hope Uzodinma will repudiate agreement in respect of payment of salaries and pensions reached in 2021,” he said.
The NUJ national secretary, Mr Shuaibu Leman said the union was appalled at the treatment meted out to the NLC president by sponsored thugs and the police.
“We are equally full of consternation by the Gestapo manner in which Ajaero was battered and subsequently whisked away. Obviously, the police and other state actors have learned nothing from our nascent democracy, which presupposes that conduct of such agents of state should be civil and that citizens have a right to peaceful assembly and protests.”
Also, the Nigeria Union of Railway Workers (NUR) condemned the dastardly act in a press statement by its secretary general, Mr Segun Esan.
The NUR noted that gathering by the workers to peacefully protest against acts of injustice is a legitimate right that does not contravene any known law, especially when all due diligence had been fulfilled in terms of informing security agencies and other relevant stakeholders.
For its part, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) expressed shock at reports of attacks on unarmed workers and the NLC leadership in Imo.
“It is ironic that Imo is one of the states involved in the off-cycle governorship elections in the country scheduled for November 11, 2023. It is depressing to read reports of the active involvement of functionaries of the state government, as well as reports of complicity of the Imo police command in this show of shame.”
This, indeed, marks a new low in industrial relations in the country and is reminiscent of the years of totalitarianism during different regimes of military dictatorship in the country,” ASUP said in a statement by its spokesman, Mr Abdullahi Yalwa.
Reacting to the heat generated by the attack on the NLC leader, the state governor, Mr Hope Uzodinma accused the unionist who is also from the state of his inability to separate politics from trade unionism.
“What has happened in this ugly coincidence is that the national president of the Nigeria Labour Congress is from Imo State and has not been able to demarcate the difference between being a national leader of an organisation and then an interested party in local politics.”
He alleged that Ajaero is involved in local politics and denied the allegation of orchestrating the attack on him.
The governor said it took his intervention before the NLC leaders in his state who were suspended and replaced with the caretaker committee to be reinstated.
“There is an attempt to mix up partisan politics or an attempt to blackmail my government, but I can tell you that my people are already aware.
“That was why the NLC Imo State chapter addressed a world press conference that what their national leadership is doing is not correct and that they are not going to do any strike or protest. And in the process, they decided to dissolve them to put in a caretaker. Of course, I’m the chief security officer and I have a responsibility to intervene,” said Uzodinma who is the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the November 11 governorship election in the state.
