The senator for Edo North and former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Adams Oshiomhole, on Wednesday, recounted a moment of assault at the hands of Department of State Services (DSS) operatives during his tenure as the labour leader between 1999 and 2007.

Oshiomhole, who appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today, narrated his experience in light of the recent assault on current NLC president Joe Ajaero in Imo State, prompting an indefinite nationwide strike which began on Tuesday.

“I had a similar experience… I was on my way to Delta State and I went to the airport,” he said.

“The then director of SSS ordered that I should be arrested and stopped from travelling because we had given an ultimatum to the then Federal Government headed by President Olusegun Obasanjo.”

According to him, the ultimatum had to do with resisting the attempt to withdraw fuel subsidy because of our fears of the consequential increase in the cost of living.

“They dragged me on the tarmac and I had my cuts all over the place. They forcefully prevented me from flying and took me back to the DSS director general’s office — then Col. [Kayode] Are,” the former labour leader stated.

“He offered to take me to their own hospital and I said, ‘No, I can’t even trust a government that has inflicted this kind of wound on me to treat me. They might as well poison my blood.’ I said I wasn’t going to do that.”

Oshiomhole added that he ended up in detention after being “taken away” for two days.

“[For] at least 48 hours, the NLC couldn’t locate me. When eventually I was let out, the bandage on my arm with the blood and all that, I told my colleagues, ‘This blood would rather reinforce and whet my appetite for the struggle for justice,’” he said. (Channels TV)

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