The Imo State Police Command has denied arresting President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero.
Ajaero was said arrested in Owerri, the Imo state capital, according to reports.
It was gathered that he was picked up from the NLC State Council Secretariat by heavily armed policemen and taken to an unknown destination.
Labour in a statement signed by its General Secretary, Emmanuel Ugboaja, and Comrade Nuhu Toro, Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), alleged that the Imo state government has continued to use violence and intimidation against trade unions and their leadership in the state.
“Just as Nigerian workers gathered earlier this morning led by the leadership of the two labour centres to demonstrate our outrage over the serial and habitual abuse and violation of the rights of workers in the state; the Government unleashed blood-cuddling mayhem on the workers,” they said.
Reacting to reports of Ajaero’s arrest, spokesperson of the Imo State Police Command, ASP Henry Okoye, in a statement, said Ajaero was taken to safety following a scuffle that broke out in a meeting by NLC members in Owerri.
“The Imo State Police Command wishes to clarify some sketchy reports alleging the arrest of the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Joe Ajaero, in Owerri.
“It is pertinent to state that the NLC President was in Owerri as part of arrangements of the Congress to mobilise workers for a mega protest rally in the state.
“In the course of their planning, it was reported that suggestions arose for the lockdown of some essential facilities particularly the airport which led to some workers and other individuals resisting the picketing process leading to scuffles and heated arguments and an eventual attack on the person of the president by a mob.
“Upon receiving this report, the Imo Police Command swiftly deployed police operatives to the scene where the Officer in Charge exercised his operational discretion by taking the NLC President into protective custody at the State Command Headquarters to ensure the protection of his life and that he was not lynched in the scuffle that followed,” the police PPRO said.
Okoye explained that the Commissioner of Police thereafter directed that the NLC president should be taken to the Police Medical Services, Owerri, where he would be accorded medical attention as a result of the attack, adding that he has therefore been accorded adequate security cover to proceed on his other legitimate engagements for the day.
