The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria have declared plans for a statewide strike in protest to President Joe Ajaero’s beating and kidnapping.
The strike date, Wednesday, November 8, 2023, was revealed at a news conference on Friday.
The joint union leaders have presented the Federal Government with a six-point demand, which includes the immediate removal of the Imo State Commissioner of Police, the Area Commander, and other officials for their alleged involvement in the brutalization and dehumanization of Ajaero and other workers.
Recall that Ajaero was arrested by police during a protest in the state capital against the Imo State Government’s failure to pay workers.
In response to the arrest, the NLC accused the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, of conniving with the state’s Commissioner of Police, Muhammed Barde, to ‘abduct’ Joe Ajaero on Wednesday.
The NLC stated that the Imo State administration has continued to employ “the instrument of violence and intimidation” against trade unions and their leadership in the state, adding that they had just asked the governor to pay state workers’ paychecks.
In a statement titled, ”The President of Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Joe Ajaero has been abducted by Hope Uzodimma and the Imo State Police Commissioner’ signed by the joint Unions’ Secretaries, Emmanuel Ugboaja (NLC) and Nuhu Toro (TUC) and made available to PUNCH Online on Wednesday, they frowned at the detention of Ajaero stressing the need for President Bola Tinubu’s intervention.
The statement partly 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.
But state’s Police Command and the governor denied arresting Ajaero in separate statements.
The police claimed the NLC President was in Warri as part of the Congress’s plans to organise labourers for a massive protest demonstration in the state.
During the planning stages, there were reports of proposals to lock down some crucial facilities, mainly the airport in the state.
Meanwhile, the state’s commissioner for Information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba, claimed that the governor has no hand in Ajaero’s arrest, adding, “Those accusing the government were perennial mischief makers always crying wolf where there is none.”
