STATE-ASSISTED violence was on display last week when thugs disrupted a workers’ rally in Owerri, Imo State, and battered Joe Ajaero, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, while the police briefly detained him. While the labour unions are restive and spoiling for a showdown, the state government has accused the NLC of politicking and the police have given a different account of the incident. The Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, should investigate the matter and bring all those who broke the law to justice.
According to news reports, ruffians, some who were alleged to be members of the Imo State chapter of Ebubeagu, the South-East states’ joint security agency, on Wednesday, stormed the Imo State NLC secretariat, where Ajaero was addressing workers and attacked him and others. A contingent of armed police officers also moved in and took him into custody.
He was reportedly beaten and photographs of his battered face, with one eye swollen and closed, went viral on mainstream and social media. By his accounts, he was badly beaten, and later arrested by police, who later took him for treatment at a medical centre.
But the police have since denied being part of the assault. Instead, said Henry Okoye, spokesman for the Imo State Police Command, the police moved in on a rescue mission after receiving a report that the NLC boss was under attack and took him into “protective custody.”
“Upon receiving this report, the 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 to ensure the protection of his life and that he was not lynched in the scuffle that followed,” Okoye added.
Egbetokun should unravel the truth. If the Imo police acted in good faith and professionally as they claimed; fine. If they did not and had violated anyone’s, including the NLC officials’ rights, they should be exposed and punished.
Moreover, the police should uncover and track down the attackers and prosecute them. Investigations should determine the veracity of the allegations that members of Ebubeagu were part of the attackers, and act accordingly under the law.
It is apparent that the Imo State Government is a partisan party in this episode. Its officials, including Governor Hope Uzodinma, have been accusing the NLC of “meddling in politics,” and in its face-off with workers. Indeed, Ajaero and other labour leaders were in the state in solidarity with the state chapter. That is the way of unions.
If, as alleged by the state government, the unions were defying a subsisting court order, violent disruption is not the legal response. The state government should be more concerned with the maintenance of law and order.
There is no justification for the savagery. The 1999 Constitution provides for freedom of assembly and a subsisting Court of Appeal judgement has affirmed this right.
But state and non-state actors continue to violate basic rights and earn the country low rankings in rights observance. Nigeria is ranked the 21st worst country in human rights and rule of law violations in the world by the Global Economy, a US-based online platform.
In 2020, a World Justice Project ranked her 99th among 128 countries in the observance of fundamental rights.
Reports of the Imo attack add to the country’s poor reputation; Egbetokun should act quickly to clear the air.
