Go to court, Imo state governor mocks brutalized NLC president Joe Ajaero

The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) has called on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its president, Joe Ajaero, to seek redress in court over the manhandling of the labour leader.

Ajaero was on Wednesday in Owerri, Imo State manhandled by alleged state agents while he was about leading public workers on a protest over the government’s alleged violation of workers’ rights.

Lending its voice to the matter, RULAAC through its Executive Director, Okechukwu Nwanguma, said in a statement on Friday: “There have been steady incidents of violence and repressive attacks on political opposition and critics of the government in Imo State under Mr. Hope Uzodimma. The civic space in Imo State is constricted to civic engagement and political participation by all stakeholders and political interests in the state. Civil society, political opposition, and the media have been silenced through intimidation and violence.

“On Wednesday 1, 2023, a security aide to Governor Hope Uzodimma known as Chinasa Nwaneri who commands the Ebubeagu state-controlled militia, led several thugs accompanied by police officers from the Tiger Base and other formations under the Imo State Police Command to violently assault leaders and members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and abducted Joe Ajaeoro, the President of the NLC, having also brutalized him, tore his clothes and took him to the dreaded Tiger Base which is the police unit that executes the terror agenda of the Uzodimma government in Imo State.

“If the police had credible reasons to arrest Ajaero, they did not need to have deployed such level of unprovoked and unwarranted maximum violence and attack on his human dignity, as evidenced by witnesses accounts and video footage.

“Regrettably, Police in Imo, under CP Ahmed Barde, have remained tools of political violence and oppression in the hands of the Hope Uzodimma ruthless government

“The attack on the members of the NLC by agents of the Governor Uzodimma regime, acting in concert with police operatives under the Imo State Police Command is a daredevil and condemnable act of state violence against the labor movement and against freedom of expression.

“The abduction of the labor leader, his brutalisation to the point of now putting his life in danger, their dispossession of their personal belongings including cash, phones and other valuables are condemnable acts of tyranny, robbery, oppression and suppression of basic freedoms.

“The attempt by the police to twist the facts — following a backlash — by denying their reckless and barbaric actions and instead claiming that they took Ajaero into protective custody is a cowardly and fruitless attempt to deceive Nigerias who already know the truth, and who also know that this action is typical of the vicious methods of the government of Uzodimma in dealing with opposition and critics of his government.

“The Nigerian Labor Congress NLC and its allies in the labor movement must seek redress both in court as well as embark on appropriate political actions to protest this tyranny.

“This disturbing state of affairs in Imo has grave implications for the forthcoming November gubernatorial election in the state.

“From all indications, the forthcoming November 11 governorship election in Imo, will be a zero-sum game as the Uzodimma government has taken every undemocratic step to exclude all other political parties and legitimate interests in participating in the elections. He has seized control of state institutions including law enforcement and security agencies as well as the election management body which, as it stands now, are tied to his apron string and decidedly at his beck and call. He has deployed all forces and tactics of violence and coercion to close the democratic space to prevent popular participation to ensure free, fair, peaceful and credible elections.

“A further signal that the November governorship election will be more of warfare than free, fair and peaceful electoral contest is the move to deny election observers and other stakeholders spaces and accommodation in hotels in Owerri.

“The attempt by the Imo State Government to pay for all the rooms in all the hotels in Owerri one week before and days after the election day is part of the diabolical stratagem to prevent access to the state by independent observers to observe and document the process and outcome of the election. This can only be because there is a sinister scheme to prevent an independent observation and scrutiny of the process of the election.

“The voices of the people are not likely to count and the outcome appears determined.

“President Bola Tinubu has a duty to direct security agencies and INEC to play by the rules and to ensure that the Imo election is conducted in accordance with the electoral Act, the constitution and democratic principles.”