••• NLC, civil society brace up for action
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, has been arrested and taken to an unknown destination.
The Labour leader was picked on Monday morning at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
Two separate press statements by the NLC and the United Action Front of Civil Society Groups said that the arrest was carried out when Ajaero was about to travel to the UK on the invitation of the UK Labour movement where he had been scheduled to give a talk.
Both statements which linked the Department of State Security (DSS) with the arrest said that Ajaero had been kept incommunicado in an unknown location.
Nigeria’s organised Labour and its affiliates as well as civil society groups are brazing up for action.
Recall that the police recently invited the NLC president on allegations of terrorism and terrorism financing charges. He responded to the invitation and was later released by the police, but the case was not closed.
The spokesperson for the NLC, Comrade Benson Upah, in a statement accused the Federal Government of intimidation and an attempt to cow Labour and Nigerians from agitation in the face of hardship inflicted by government policies.
“This is an unmistakable demonstration of the height of lawlessness being perpetuated by the Nigerian government and its agencies in their bid to silence every voice of dissent and opposition in the country as the economic policies of the government continue to afflict the people with monumental suffering and hardship,” Upah said.
“Such actions are not only undemocratic but immoral as well as a direct affront to the fundamental rights of citizens and organizations to lawfully express their views and carry out their activities,” he added.
Upah who is the Head of NLC Information and Public Affairs further stated: “In the light of this troubling development, the Congress puts all its affiliates, state councils, civil society allies and all patriotic Nigerians on the highest state of alert. The Congress will not stand idly by while the rights of its leaders and members are trampled upon. Accordingly, we demand for the immediate and unconditional release of comrade Joe Ajaero.”
Also recall that the NLC threatened to shut down the country if the police detained their leader when he was invited by the police.
But civil society groups, under the auspices of the United Action Front of Civil Society, have condemned the arrest and called for his release.
In a statement by Mallam Hamisu Santuraki, the spokesperson and National Coordinating Secretariat, United Action Front of Civil Society, the group stated: “For us in the organised civil society and pro democracy movement of Nigeria, the abduction of Ajaero today is brash and indecent on the part of Nigerian security operatives and should be condemned by all Nigerians. We therefore wish to unequivocally condemn this needless rascality employed by the DSS today against the President of the NLC which has already generated shockwaves through the length and breadth of the country and may lead to mass resistance and civil disobedience in the country if Ajaero is not released immediately by the State.”
The group has also put members on alert to strategise on steps to be taken.
“We wish to call on our allies nationwide to immediately commence national consultations on how best to halt the growing police state in Nigeria as evidenced by the massive repression of civil and democracy space by State Agent in Nigeria,” it stated.
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