By Ishaya Ibrahim
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, has narrated how policemen arrested him in Imo and handed him over to at least 20 thugs who then gave him a bloody torture.
Ajaero, still looking bruised while addressing a world press conference on Friday in Abuja, said his plight even elicited pity from an Inspector who tried to dissuade his boss from throwing him to the hounds. But the boss reprimanded the Inspector from proceeding with that appeal.
The Labour leader said after being brutalized by both thugs and their police supervisors, he was then to thrown into a police van and taken to Tiger Base, a police post reputed for tortures 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. He said all the pleas he made to them to take him to hospital, fell on deaf ears. He said they simply told him to say his last prayers.
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He said after the police grilled him to their satisfaction, they then took him to the state’s commissioner of police, Mohammed Barde, who then ordered that he should be taken to police hospital for treatment.
Ajaero also countered the governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma, who claimed he was mixing politics with unionism. He said the Imo labour issue predated his election as NLC President. He said people have been eaten the salaries of many and gratuities and many Imo workers, the reason for the planned protest.
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 being Nasir Idris, the former NLC Treasurer now Kebbi State governor.