The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has blasted President Bola Tinubu’s government for interfering in the tenure of its leaders.
Benson Upah, NLC spokesman, stated this while addressing journalists on Thursday in Abuja.
Mr Upah alleged that the government wanted to impose a two-year tenure on labour leaders. He said such action would amount to meddling in the internal running of trade unions and a gross violation of the corpus of Labour Law and International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions.
“The federal government should put an end to the ongoing alleged hybrid war against congress. However, if the government feels that two years is the best tenure to go, it should be two years for everyone, including the office of the president and principal public officers as well,” the NLC official stated.
The NLC chieftain asked the Tinubu government to stop meddling in the affairs of the Labour Party and, as well, end the destabilisation campaign against opposition parties.
Mr Upah said the police must tender an unreserved apology to NLC for the invasion of its headquarters, risk an industrial action, or other options open to congress to express dissatisfaction.
He added that the explanations by the police for the invasion have consistently failed to add up, including the purported legal documents from a court of jurisdiction permitting the raid.
“Besides the government’s silence on our patriotic and well-thought-out demands, the police have since come out to make further comments on the raid instead of an apology. A statement signed by ACP Olumumuyiwa Adejobi claimed that the raid had no connection with the NLC secretariat, workers, or leadership but a prime criminal suspect in an ongoing investigation traced to a shop within the building, which they claimed was on the second floor.
“We find the claims contradictory, self-serving and face-saving and intended to cover up their blunders. What were the security personnel doing on the 10th floor when the shop they were after was on the second floor?
“If the police truly had credible intelligence and if congress was not their target, what was wrong in taking the leadership of congress into confidence? If they felt that would jeopardise the operation, couldn’t they have confided in the leadership,” he said.
He, therefore, called on the federal government and the police not to rope congress into what it knew nothing about.
Mr Upah urged Mr Tinubu’s government to desist from playing on the intelligence of Nigerians by attempting to divert their attention from the real issues of bad governance and hunger.
He stressed that Mr Tinubu’s harsh economic policies continue to unleash hardship on Nigerians.
Mr Upah said the congress called on the Tinubu government to release detained protesters, including a member of the Nigeria Union Electricity Employee (NUEE)’s executive, Opalua Eleojo, arrested at a social spot in Abuja.
“We are entitled to safety and protection. The arrest is not good PR for this country. People are laughing at us,” he said
(NAN)
