WARRI — ARMED robbers infiltrated the ranks of labour and other civil society groups in their march round Warri and Effurun, Delta state, yesterday, to ensure compliance of residents with the sit-at-home strike but they were confronted by the activists who wanted to disarm them until men of Quick Intervention of the Delta State Police Command came and gave them a hot chase.
The bandits were said to have robbed some people under the guise of protest against hike in fuel prices. Chairman/National co-ordinator of the Human Rights Defenders Organization of Nigeria, Mr. C.D.S. Omon Irabor who led the coalition that monitored and ensured compliance with the strike order in Warri and Effurun told Vanguard that “we actually wanted to disarm and arrest these armed robbers. I saw them with guns myself because they wanted to tarnish our image but we left them when the police came and started pursuing them. In fact, they jumped onto the motorcycles with which they were operating and ran.”
All government offices in Warri, Effurun and Abraka in Delta state complied with the sit-at-home strike. Some government workers who went to work yesterday were ordered to go home immediately. At the Delta State University, Abraka where Ijaw students staged a peaceful protest in solidarity with the authorities of the school, which joined a nationwide strike for the first time in many years, its national president, Dennis Otuaro and another top official, B. Paul told complained to Vanguard that the national legal adviser of the students' association, Ebi Torkere was picked up supposedly by security agents. “What I can say for now is that Ebi Torkere is missing and we want to warn that if he is not released immediately by those who are holding him, they will see trouble”, Otuaro said.
The strike was effective in Warri and environs as the Central Hospital, Warri South local government council and others were boycotted by workers. The labour leaders including the Assistant State Secretary of the NLC, state chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, chairman, of the Okada Riders, chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers and NUPENG chairman, met at a location in the morning to firm up their strategies before they went to the take-off point at Effurun through the Petroleum Institute area in a convoy of over 50 vehicles.
They went to Jakpa Road, from where they proceeded to Airport and Enerhen roads and addressed a rally. It was at the Igbudu market that bandits infiltrated their ranks but were repelled. At the Warri motor park, some buses were seen loading and the drivers begged for forgiveness after discharging the passengers, while traders at the Warri main market who said they were misinformed about whether to open for business that day or not, closed their shops when the team arrived.
Workers at the Nigerian Ports Authority, Warri complied with the strike order but at the Department of Petroleum Resources, Warri, the few workers who went to work were ordered out and the gate locked. Mr. Omon-Irabor told Vanguard that the sit-at-home strike continues today. The country representative of the Amnesty International, Mr. Michael Oberabor told Vanguard yesterday that “I decided to sit at home because we have to obey the call of the masses. The Obasanjo government from what one can see is bereft of ideas and it does not even want to accept any when given. Well, officials of Amnesty International abroad are coming by Wednesday if their flight is not disrupted to see things for themselves.”
A motor mechanic, Mr. John Mabiaku who was seen repairing a car at his workshop yesterday afternoon said that “it is not as if I do not want to stay at home or I am in support of the fuel price increase but you see, man has to survive, I have nothing at home now. If I had some money for food in the house, I would not have come out at all.” Some traders still opened for business yesterday in Warri but labour officials said their target was not the ordinary citizens who were bearing the brunt of government's bad policies.
