Police Witch-hunting Ajaero – Labour

Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has expressed disapproval of the second invitation to its president, Joe Ajaero and the general secretary, Comrade Emmanuel Ugboaja, by the police.

The labour centre labelled the action as a blatant attempt at intimidation and a clear case of a witch-hunt.

This came just a few days after a similar invitation, which Ajaero honoured on Thursday, raised concerns within Pascal Bafyau’s Labour House about the increasing frequency of such invitations.

In a letter signed by CP Rufus Alajide for the deputy inspector-general of police, Force Intelligence Department, the police said the latest invitation was in furtherance of an investigation into alleged criminal intimidation, malicious damage to properties and conducts likely to cause breach of public peace.

Speaking yesterday with LEADERSHIP Sunday, NLC’s head of information and public affairs, Comrade Benson Upah, reiterated the union’s stance as a law-abiding organisation.

“Labour is a law-abiding organisation and the president and the general secretary, who have been invited, are also law-abiding citizens.

“I want to assure you that they did not commit any offence. This is a clear case of witch-hunt and intimidation using the institutions of the state,” Upah said.

According to him, the repeated invitations and the recent raid on the NLC office were clear indications of an orchestrated agenda by the state to harass and intimidate those holding dissenting views.

“This invitation, coming on the heels of the last one, clearly suggests a manifest intent by the state; it is so obvious. Those who were initially in doubt can now see that we never acted in breach of the law.

“The raid was a violation of our rights and an act of impunity intended to scare, harass and intimidate,” he added.

Upah also assured that the NLC would not take these actions lying down. While he refrained from disclosing the union’s next steps, he stated that such harassment cannot continue unchallenged.

“Even if we are in a police state, this harassment cannot continue indefinitely. I want to assure you of this,” Upah concluded.

Meanwhile, labour unions and civil society organisations have faulted fresh invitation of the NLC president and the general secretary, saying the government is determined to silence labour unions.

The fresh summons came after Ajaero honoured the police’s invitation over alleged criminal conspiracy, terrorism financing, treasonable felony, subversion and cybercrime.

Reacting to the development, the president of Precision, Electrical and Related Equipment Senior Staff Association (PERESSA), Comrade Rufus Olusesan said he saw it coming, saying he had warned the NLC against frequent visits to Aso Rock to save itself from this kind of dishonour from government.

According to him, the federal government is out to weaken the labour movement, having keenly watched the lacklustre attitude of the Nigeria Labour Congress’ leadership to the plight of the Nigerian workers in the last dispensation.

He said, “Of course, labour movement leadership must be ready to fight anti-poor, pro-rich policies vis-a-viz privatisation, trade liberation, deregulation and commercialisation, with of course, the resultant effects of low-purchasing power of the people, high cost of living, inflation and devaluation of the local currency.

“This time around, labour movement must put an end to the age-long romance with the government and face reality of their service to the poor while they will organise protests/ strikes and call for the immediate reversal of all anti-poor policies and release of all detained #EndBadGovernance protesters.”

The general secretary of Joint Action Front (JAF), Comrade Abiodun Aremu, said, “What is the fresh invitation all about? Whatever it may be, it was clear the way Comrade Joe Ajaero was hurriedly asked to return after the first meeting with the police team, that was a tactical retreat on their part to cool to re-strategise to come back more forcefully with some other premeditated allegations of complicity to keep Comrade Ajaero on what I will call ‘open arrest.’

“What we are dealing with is a low-intensity war by the Tinubu police-state to criminalise the NLC leadership with trumped-up incriminating charges for spurious trials.

“From the first meeting of the Ajaero leadership with the Tinubu police-state, I saw this strategy very clearly and I told the NLC president that he must be very careful in his dealings with the state.

“The Nigerian state has been on the trial of Joe Ajaero since May 2016 protests on petrol prices when Ajaero was kept under protective custody of the state for days without openly declaring his arrest and was later released off-record.

“What do you think the Tinubu state was up to when Comrade Ajaero was abducted in Imo State and brutalised? You can quote me: this Tinubu police state is simply out to decimate the NLC in order to weaken resistance against its unpopular policies.

“NLC and workers generally and the pro-people movements in the country urgently need to adopt a strategy of class struggle in order to move the country forward.

“I’m a student of class struggle employed by Michael Imoudu and Wahab Goodluck and I can understand what is going on. Go interview Comrade Hassan Sunmonu. He is still living. He led the labour movement at its height. That’s why when you see me in the barricade, I always emphasize that: gentle comrades no dey o, gentle woman no dey, inside the struggle, gentle Aluta no dey.

“NLC must learn to be strategic with the state in negotiations. They can learn from ASUU rather than our trade union leaders just jumping to Aso Rock for talks at the simplest notice of invitation to meetings with errand boys of presidents.

“NLC and TUC leaders should only be part of any final and decisive stage of any negotiation where agreement would be reached once a draft agreement has been accepted by government to be signed and the unions highest organs have also agreed to it, nothing more, nothing less.”