By GARBA MUHAMMAD, Kaduna

National President of the National Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Ayuba Wabba has dared Governor Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna to come and arrest him, saying, “let him come and arrest me.”

This is coming hours after the governor declared the NLC President and other union leaders wanted.

Wabba while responding to El-Rufa’s declaration while leading thousands of workers in a peaceful protest stated: “It is not about me. We are here and waiting for them."

The protest eventually turned violent as armed thugs attacked the workers, throwing stones at them.

The thugs, armed with knives, sticks and stones attacked the peaceful protesters at NEPA roundabout, Kaduna, but were quickly dispersed by security personnel deployed to protect the protesters. Some of the thugs were arrested.

One of the protesters, Mr Daniel John, described the development as “very unfortunate”, adding that although no one was injured, they were forced to suspend the peaceful procession for the day.

“We were at NEPA roundabout and about to be addressed by our chairman, when the heavily armed thugs in their numbers arrived and began to wield knives and sticks while others throw stones at us.

“We were lucky security personnel were with us, who engaged the thugs and manage to disperse them and arrest some of them,” he said.

Another protester, Fatima Abdulhamid, thanked the police and other security personnel for displaying high level of professionalism by quickly responding to the threat and overrunning the thugs.

Earlier, the NLC Chairman in the state, Mr Ayuba Suleiman, said that the labour unions were committed to the principle of dialogue and social bargaining for the benefit of disengaged workers in the state.

The labour unions had on Monday began a five-day warning strike over the sack of civil servants by the Kaduna State Government.

Suleiman had earlier on Sunday assured workers and the general public of their commitment to maintain peace during the strike.

He also alerted the general public to watch out for thugs who were allegedly recruited to disrupt the peace in order to blame the labour unions.

•Additional reports by NAN.

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