November 10, (THEWILL) – Comrade Joe Ajaero, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), on Friday, alleged that operatives of the Nigeria Police, in Imo State, supervised the thugs who brutalised him after he was arrested.
THEWILL had reported that Ajaero was hospitalised at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Owerri, on Wednesday, November 1, after he was allegedly brutalised by suspected agents of the state and security operatives.
The NLC President and other national leaders of NLC and TUC, were at the state Secretariat in Owerri to protest, among other grievances, the backlog of unpaid salaries and allowances, pensions, gratuities and non-compliance with the National Minimum Wage Act.
Speaking on Friday, during a world press conference in Abuja, Ajaero said he was beaten and dragged on the floor like a common criminal.
“I can’t explain the beating I received. They tied my hands and dragged me on the floor like a common criminal”, he said.
Ajaero said after being brutalised by both thugs and their police supervisors, he was thrown into a police van and taken to Tiger Base, a police post, allegedly reputed for torture and various forms of human rights violations.
At the Tiger Base police post, Ajaero said he was quizzed for several hours by policemen, who were unsympathetic to his plight, adding that all the pleas he made to them to take him to hospital, fell on deaf ears.
“They simply told me to say my last prayers”, said Ajaero.
Ajaero said after the police grilled him to their satisfaction, he was taken to the state’s commissioner of police, Mohammed Barde, who then ordered that he should be taken to a police hospital for treatment.
Ajaero, who faulted the allegation by Governor Hope Uzodimma, that he was mixing politics with unionism, said the Imo labour issue predated his election as NLC President.
The Labour leader said he attended only two political rallies in his lifetime. The first, was when Adams Oshiomhole was seeking to be governor of Edo State and the second was Nasir Idris, the former NLC Treasurer, now Kebbi State governor.
The NLC President denied the allegation by the Imo State government that he is a card-carrying member of the Labour Party (LP).
“I am not a card-carrying member of any political party as alleged”, he said.
