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New Page 15
Police stop Labour rally
•NLC quits palliative panel
FRANCIS AWOWOLE-BROWNE
LABOUR and civil
society groups formally pulled out of the Senator Ibrahim Mantu-led palliative
committee just as a mobilisation rally for the November 16 strike was disrupted
by police in Lagos yesterday.
The police action came even as social
miscreants known as Area Boys formally wrote the Nigeria Labour Congress
(NLC) to express their readiness to be involved in the mass action to ensure its
effectiveness in all parts of the country.
At Yaba, Lagos yesterday, a detachment of
armed anti-riot policemen led by Mr. Sam Adegbuyi, an Assistant Commissioner of
Police in charge of Area C in Lagos, had stormed the venue of the rally and
positioned themselves strategically watching from afar until the Nigeria Labour
Congress (NLC) president, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti, Charlie
Boy, president of the Performing Musicians of Nigeria and Mr. Mike Ozekhome,
activist lawyer, arrived the Sabo bus stop where the crowd had gathered, for the
event, chanting solidarity songs.
The arrival of Mr. Oshiomhole and his
group at about 11.00am threw the entire Yaba and adjourning Tejuosho and
Ojuelegba into a frenzy thus creating heavy traffick jam.
He was to speak having mounted the rostrum
when the leader of the police team approached him and insisted that the rally be
stopped and if it must hold should be taken inside the NLC secretariat annex
building premises which is about 500 metres away.
Several pleas from the labour leaders to
the policemen to allow the rally hold fell on deaf ears as the policemen
maintained that no permission was obtained for the rally to hold in a public
place.
As tempers rose among the crowd with some
already throwing stones demanding that the policemen should leave, Mr.
Oshiomhole bowed to the police and led the crowd to the NLC annex secretariat.
He later addressed newsmen during which he
announced that Labour and civil societies had pulled out of the palliative
committee because President Olusegun Obasanjo did not want issues bordering on
the fuel price to be discussed.
Oshiomhole stated that the group had
written a letter to Senator Mantu to that effect.
Meanwhile, area boys have pledged
their resolve to ensure the effectiveness of the action by making sure that both
social and business activities grind to a halt during the strike.
A solidarity letter to the NLC, signed by
the Area Boys spokesperson, Mr. Edafe Williams, said that the boys have
decided to make the action a mother-of-all-strikes should government fail to
listen to Labour by November 15.
They emphasised that "come November 16,
there will be no movement of vehicles, no movement of okada, markets must
close and all other commercial activities in the 36 states of the federation
including FCT must close."
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