THE SUN

Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has described the recent attack on members of the Rivers State executive council of the congress by thugs and mercenaries alleged hired by the state government as nihilistic and barbaric.

Condemning the assault on the unionists, the NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, said the attack was the height of intolerance, arrogance and executive lawlessness. Wabba said the attack was launched on workers during a meeting that held at the secretariat of the Medical and Health Workers Union.

According to Wabba, the meeting was held at the health workers’ secretariat because the secretariat of the NLC state council had been locked up by the state government for the past eight months over a disagreement on the payment of the new national minimum wage.

He said, “The governor, on the basis of this disagreement, did not only order the state council secretariat shut under the guise of a phoney integrity check of a building built by the state government and commissioned only in 2019. The so-called integrity test has lasted as much as eight months.

“The governor, in furtherance of executive lawlessness, caused his personal security to arrest and unlawfully detain the state chairperson of the Judiciary Staff Union (JUSUN) for an indefinite period of time before taking him to court on trumped-up charges.”

The NLC president noted that, shortly after the kidnapped labour leader was released, he was again taken by “unknown persons.”

“Coupled with this, other union executives have come under various forms of harassment in the hands of the agents of the state government, suffering varying degrees of injury in the process,” he said.

Wabba declaring that the running harassment of labour leaders in Rivers State was against the provisions of the Constitution, labour legislation and other international instruments that guarantee the freedom of association, speech and right to organize.

He said, “In light of this, we urge all relevant authorities, organisations, and individuals to call to order Emperor Nyesom Wike, in the interest of industrial peace and deepened social justice in Rivers State.”