The Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) has condemned the assault on the president of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero by alleged thugs in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
Ajaero had led a protest against the Imo state government on Wednesday, November 1, which led to violence.
The NLC president was taken into protective custody by the police after he was attacked.
The Congress said that Ajaero was abducted after being brutalized by policemen accompanied by thugs.
In a statement on Sunday, November 5, in Abuja signed by its general secretary, Peters Adeyemi, NASU bemoaned the role allegedly played by the governor of Imo state, Hope Uzodinma, and the Imo State Commissioner of Police in the incident.
It said the “barbaric action was a violation of trade union right as well as human right of Ajaero.”
The statement said: “The despicable action of the Governor and the Commissioner of Police in this regard is a violation of the human and trade union rights of Ajaero. The rights, that Ajaero was exercising in Owerri as the leader of the working people of Nigeria, before the brut show of power that exists only in animal farms, are guaranteed by the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 Constitution (as amended) and International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions. Nigeria as a member state of ILO has ratified ILO Conventions on Freedom of Association and Protection of Rights to Organise, 1948 (No.87) and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining, 1949 (No.98).”
Adeyemi, who is also the Deputy President of Public Service International (PSI), alleged that it was “indeed worrisome that after the State Governor, had morally brutalised Imo state workers through unfair labour practices and unpaid salaries and pension, he then resorted to physical brutalisation of Ajaero, the leader of the workers, who were on a solidarity visit to the workers in Imo State, adding, ‘as usual, he found a ready ally in the Imo State Commissioner of Police.’”
The statement added: “These acts of the two top State and Federal Government functionaries in Imo State, which are associated only with authoritarian and fascist Governments, were common in Nigeria only during military regimes. The Labour Movement and indeed Nigerians had erroneously believed that these acts had gone with military incursion in the governance of the country. What the Labour Movement failed to understand was that some ‘emperors’ in State government houses are yet to be fully debriefed of military mentality.”
NASU called on the Inspector General of Police to remove the Imo State Commissioner of Police for indulging in the alleged “heinous crime under the guise of keeping Ajaero under so-called ‘protective custody.’”
NASU also urged President Bola Tinubu to, as a matter of urgency, direct the investigation of the actions of the Imo State Governor and the Imo State Commissioner of Police, their agents, and officials and prosecute all those found culpable.
The statement added: “Failure to do so, the President will be unintentionally sending a loud message to the nation, that they should be expecting a clampdown on trade union leaders and activists, whenever there is a dispute between the government and labour. NASU says no to authoritarianism and fascism in public administration and governance in Nigeria. It cannot be business as usual anymore.” The Natiom.