Daily Independent Online.
*
Tuesday, August 24, 2004.
Rally: Police step up security at NASS
•Put NLC officials under
surveillance
By Bassey Udo,
Adetutu Folasade-Koyi, Uchenna Awom
and
Bimbo Kesington
A plea that their mission to the National Assembly today is
a Save Our Soul (SOS) visit is the new tactical weapon Labour is now employing
to enable it gain access to the Assembly complex.
This change of tone has not met well with the police. On
Monday, they stepped up security around the vicinity of the National Assembly.
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) changed its tone as
opposed to the plan of a mass rally scheduled for today in the Federal Capital
Territory (FCT), Abuja. Labour said it only wants to parley with the leadership
of the National Assembly on the Labour Bill before them.
It was learnt that the Senate will be reading the bill
today, hence the NLC decided on a peaceful rally at the premises of the
National Assembly to express displeasure with the bill.
Apart from the Police, the State Security Service (SSS) are
said to be monitoring the movements of top labour officials who are fine-tuning
strategies that they hope would enable them to take their case against the
proposed Trade Union (Amendment) Bill before the National Assembly.
More policemen were yesterday drafted to security posts
around the Assembly, while motorists were subjected to thorough searches before
they are allowed into to the Assembly premises.
At the NLC Secretariat in Abuja, officials said plans for
the rally were in top gear though they also said some persons suspected to be
agents of government have been parading the area apparently to monitor what was
going on.
According to NLC President, Adams Oshiomhole, labour wants
to use the rally to persuade the National Assembly to set aside the proposed
law that he said is undemocratic, unconstitutional and a recipe for industrial
crises in the public and private sector.
Rising from its emergency meeting called to appraise
NLC’s planned rally, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP)
endorsed the demonstration.
CNPP’s
Secretary-General, Maxi Okwu, said the opposition parties know that the
National Assembly will pass the Trade Union amendment Bill that is born out of
vendetta and in bad faith.
The Special Assistant to the NLC president, Mr. Laitan
Oyeride, said the visit to the National Assembly was on an SOS mission.
He said the visit was going to be a peaceful as the NLC does
not want to aggravate the situation. “We had written to the Senate to
inform them of our intending rally and elicit support from them. We have also
explained to them that the rally is not intended to cause any harm or disrupt
activities in the house.”
He said some top officials of the NLC including Oshiomhole
had visited the Senate to throw more light on what the rally would be about,
adding that “it was necessary because the Senate had through Senator
Dalhatu Tafida written to the congress that it wouldn’t permit a visit
from the NLC because the gallery was too small to accommodate the protesting
workers.”
He also said the Deputy Inspector General of Police
(Operations), Micheal Okiro, also visited the congress yesterday to clear
whatever misunderstanding on the rally.
