ThevChairman House of Representative Committee on Petroleum Resource down stream, Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere, has said that those who attacked the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, in Imo state want to undermine the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He also commended the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, his Deputy, and the House of Representatives on their resolution to intervene on the strike that has crippled the country.
Reacting to the strike, while addressing newsmen, Ugochinyere said, “Let me commend the speaker of the House of Representatives and the Deputy Speaker who is the mover of the motion of urgent importance today on the NLC strike and the resolution of the House to intervene, I think it is quiet commendable. This has truly shown that the tenth House of Representatives is indeed the peoples parliament as we are popularly called today.”
Ugochinyere said it is also important that while “we are looking for an amicable resolution of the issues, we must be able to have the boldness to deal with criminal activities. This is not the first time in Imo state that this kind if things are happening.”
Lamenting the activities of the criminals, who attacked the President of NLC, Ugochinyere said, “Now you have a group of thugs and criminal elements who not only attack the president of the Nigerian Labour Congress, but have been attacking other innocent citizens.”
Narrating the activities of the criminals, who have overtime beat up prominent Nigerians, Ugochinyere said, “This group of people it is not the first time, they attacked judges of the industrial high court, they attacked the former Governor Rochas Okoroacha and beat him up, they attacked his son inlaw, other innocent people have been attacked by these elements and they operate on the same page with the police and that is why it is very Painful, as they are moving, the police is by their side and they move with armored tanks, they also attacked me.
“So, I understand that Nigerians wants things to return to normal but it is also very important that we don’t do something that will encourage these criminal elements that tomorrow again they will attack anybody. They can even attack the president if he is not dancing to the tune of their Governor. We must find a way to limit the activities of this Governor so that he does not undermine democracy.”
He decried the role of police in the activities of the criminals, adding, “These elements that go about with police, you see their activities in parts of Bayelsa, in Kogi. This strike was avoidable, it has been on for like two, three weeks. These people that carried out this attack wanted to undermine president Bola Ahmed Tinubu, because if you believe in the Presidents agenda you should know the implication of attacking the president of NLC at a time the government is engineering a reconciliation process that will bring things to normalcy.
“So because it is the President of the NLC, if decisive action is not taken against them, they will be so emboldened to continue to attack other persons. So when I heard the news that they have been arrested, Nigerians will want to see whether it’s the culprits that have been arrested, not just to fly the news that someone has been arrested.
“We want to see whether the chief thug Chinasa has also been arrested and other elements that work with him, the Chief Security officer to the Governor and the other one they called kill and bury. These are people who go about on the streets of owerri saying they will kill people and indeed they can kill. My uncle has been killed by the activities of militia coordinated by these elements. They are numerous people that have been killed in Owerri.
“So, I want Nigerians to understand that NLC action was aimed at installing sanity. I understand we need to return to normal activity, but at the same time if we don’t use this opportunity provided by the attack on the NLC president to cut them to size, they will be emboldened to attack other senior interests in the country and that will jeopardize government labour relationship in the country.
“I support the action on the House of Representatives on the resolution of this matter and while we are resolving it, I want decisive action taken against the culprit who committed these atrocities.”