As Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) holds an emergency organ meeting today over fresh invitation of its President, Joe Ajaero, and General Secretary, Emmanuel Ugboaja, by the Nigeria Police Force, many labour activists have spoken up against what they have described as unacceptable intimidation and harassment, which, according to them, they will not allowed to go unchallenged.

Today’s meeting, The Guardian gathered was to decide how the leadership would respond to the fresh police invitation.

This time around, the police invited the Labour leaders for questioning in furtherance of an investigation into an alleged case of criminal intimidation, stating that the conduct was likely to cause a breach of public peace and malicious damage to properties, in which their names were featured.

The interview is scheduled with the Deputy Inspector of Police, Force Intelligence Department (FID), CP Rufus Alajide, for September 5, 2024.

NLC Head of Information, Benson Upah, described the invitation as a clear case of witch-hunt and intimidation, using the institutions of the state, and stated that the Congress would kick against unpatriotic elements operating in whatever institution to destroy democracy.

According to him, the trade union movement will be forced to respond “because we cannot continue to be allowed to be dragged by the state using cohesive forces and we may be compelled to protect ourselves.

“It should be understood that we are a responsible organisation that always thinks about the good of the nation and citizens at all times.

“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.” When asked if the visit would be postponed like the previous one, he added: “The organs will decide if they will be available. Some programmes have already been fixed.”

Following the fresh invitation, some labour unions and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have faulted the invitation of the labour leaders, saying the government is determined to silence labour unions.

President of Precision, Electrical and Related Equipment Senior Staff Association (PERESSA), Rufus Olusesan, said the Federal Government was out to weaken the labour movement, urging that labour movement leadership must be ready to fight anti-poor, pro-rich policies vis-à-vis 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 and strikes as well as call for the immediate reversal of all anti-poor policies and release of all detained #EndBadGovernance protesters.”

Similarly, the General Secretary of Joint Action Front (JAF), Abiodun Aremu, said: “What is the fresh invitation all about? 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.

“What do you think the Tinubu state was up to when 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.

“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 Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (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.” (The Guardian)

Update news