The arrest of Joe Ajaero, president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), by the Department of State Security (DSS) on Monday has been described as capable of provoking anarchy in the country
The United Action Front of Civil Society and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Monday, in their separate reactions, described the arrest as “needless show of force by the operatives of the Department of State Services, DSS.”
In a statement by Hamisu Santuraki, spokesperson of the National Coordinating Secretariat, United Action Front of Civil Society, the organisation decried the abduction of the NLC president, saying that, “Joe Ajaero in a gestapo manner at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on his way to attend the Conference of the Trade Union Congress, TUC in the United Kingdom, which is billed to commence today.”
“We wish to state that the DSS has for no reason broken the civil and conventional practice earlier adopted by the police as touching security issues with well known high profile citizens and leaders of the people like the President of the NLC by extending invitations to them rather than employing dehumanising tactics such as forceful abduction to embarrass and intimidate them like common criminals.”
The group described Joe Ajaero as “a huge leader of both the labour movement and the masses of Nigeria given his popular position as the President of the NLC and therefore deserves to be treated with profound decorum and courtesy.
“Consequently, security issues with him should be handled with due process and not in a rough manner displayed by security agents today capable of causing national chaos and anarchy
” 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.”
The group condemned the “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 called for national consultation meeting of all the affiliate unions to “halt the police action.”
“As a major Pillar of the Labour and Civil Society Front, LCSFront, 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.”
In a related development, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also condemned the arrest and urged President Bola Tinubu to handle the labour issue with caution
Debo Ologunagba, the PDP spokesman, while also reacting to the arrest on Monday, said:”There is need for caution, there was a protest in this country, the government did not do anything.”
” You arrest some people and said they were terrorists and you charge them to court. You say some people were the sponsors of the protest.
” We know those who sponsored the protest, the sponsor is hunger, the President and his people arrest hunger and there will be no problem. Let your polices that are draconian, that are bringing people to their knees. This is the season school is resuming, we know what all of us are going through for those who have pupils in school.
“You wake up one morning, you cannot plan because the government is so insensitive and irresponsible, without consulting the National Assembly and come up with policies that destroys the plan of the people, destroy the opportunity to have what we call pursuit of happiness.
“Why do government exists, for the welfare and security of the people, now we don’t have welfare, no security. This is a breaking story. Let us see, hear what it is. We will find out. Let the government face the welfare challenges of this country, then there will be no protest.
“Nobody really cares who the president of this country is, if the government provide us with the opportunity to pursue our own goals and aspirations. So we will as a party find out, since this is breaking and take it from there. Indeed if government is about welfare and the people are saying we are dieing, it is sane to review those policies.
“Then you must show leadership by saying okay, you are telling me to tighten my belt and you are buying new belt. This is a country that cannot pay 70,000 according to them, minimum wage. But this is a country that can buy 150 Million Dollars plane. The President is trying to test how good it is and he is flying everywhere. This is a country where you spend 21 billion naira to renovate the Vice President House, this is a country where they have no money according to them, but the President will buy a yatch. There is no water body in Abuja so for the president to get to the Yatch he will have to travel one hour to Lagos.
“The Yatch has a 24 Hours Security protection. Until we talk about this issues. The president should know that when he is in a position, it is in our interest that he succeeds. Because the success of the president is our success. Nobody wishes him failure, but if his decisions are such that it is causing Nigerians pain, we will speak. We know the reality of Nigeria, with its constraints of tribe and ethnicity, but it pales into insignificance with the reality of Nigerians. People are dying every day and you know that.”
