Daily Independent Online.
*
Friday, June 11, 2004.
As Strike Enters Day Three:
NLC meets today to appraise situation
• One killed
as police invade Labour Abuja head office
• Marketers now sell fuel at between N41.50 and N43
per litre
By Tony Eluemunor,
Chris Agbambu,
Bassey Udo (Abuja)
Chuks Isiwu,
Esan Sunday (Lagos)
and Tunke-Aye Bisina
(Asaba)
Desperate to break the
resolve of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to sustain the national strike
that entered its third day today, the police on Thursday stormed Labour House
in Abuja.
A team led by Commissioner
of Police (Federal Operations) Lawrence
Alobi reportedly arrived at about 10 a.m. in seven anti-riot vans and
several unmarked vehicles. There were more than 100 fully armed police
personnel and operatives of the State Security Service (SSS).
Police barricaded all
roads linking Labour House in the central district, temporarily disrupting the
flow of traffic as they turned back motorists and pedestrians.
An eyewitness said one
of the leaders of the team, not impressed with the manner motorcyclists responded
to the order, reportedly instructed that officers open fire on them.
Movement into and exit
from the premises was halted as the leader of the team moved in to meet with
NLC President Adams Oshiomhole, who on hearing the gun shot and on sighting from
the top of the 10-storey building the heavy presence of the police, came down
to find out what was amiss.
“When the blast
settled, two commercial motorcyclists were carried away, apparently having been
shot. One of the victims was badly wounded, and he died on the spot. His
lifeless body, along with two
motor bikes belonging to the victims, were taken away in one of the waiting
vans to an unknown destination”, the witness said.
A defiant NLC insisted
the strike would continue despite appreciable improvement in the level of
compliance with the court order asking oil marketers to revert to the old pump
prices.
Oshiomhole told
newsmen at the end of a monitoring tour of filling stations around the Federal
Capital Territory (FCT) that NLC Central Working Committee (CWC) would meet
today in Lagos to review the report from other parts of the country. The
outcome of the reports would inform the decision whether or not to call off the
strike.
He and some of his
executive members stand the risk of being arrested by the police if they
continue to picket petrol filling stations that fail to comply with the court
order.
Sources said on
Thursday that 20 truckloads of anti-riot policemen stormed NLC headquarters in
Abuja in the early hours of the day apparently looking for them.
The sources insisted
that top police officers at the Louis Edet House headquarters and the Federal
Capital Authority (FCT) Police Command are in constant touch through radio
communication to monitor the movement of Oshiomhole and his group.
In Lagos, hundreds of
NLC members who wanted to enter the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE)
ostensibly to disrupt trading activities were barred from going in on Thursday.
Trading activities
continued although with a low tempo. Unlike the previous day when the exchange
attracted over N4 billion after selling 48.7 million shares, only 16 million
shares were taken up by investors.
In Asaba, a mild drama
occurred as NLC officials monitoring the strike clashed with policemen on the
premises of a branch of Zenith Bank. The Labour leaders were attempting to
close the bank. No arrest was made.
Except for Mobil
stations, which remained closed as at 6 p.m., all the filling stations owned by
the other major fuel marketers in Abuja have reverted to the old price of N43
per litre.
The situation is
similar in Lagos where pump prices have been reduced to between N41 and N41.50
per litre. However, only a handful of petrol stations opened.
Backing the protest,
the National Conscience Party (NCP) has condemned the invasion of NLC headquarters by armed policemen,
saying it is an assault on Nigerians.
The party also
described as provocative President Olusegun Obasanjo’s trip to the United
States to attend the G8 summit amid the crisis.
A statement signed by
NCP National Chairman Gani Fawehinmi and General National Secretary Femi
Aborisade said the invasion amounts to an attack on the fundamental right of
association, assembly “and action, which is guaranteed under Section 40
of the Constitution”.
