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Police arrest Anambra
labour leaders
By Okey Maduforo,
Correspondent, Awka
A civil unrest is brewing in
Awka, the Anambra State capital, should the Anambra State Police Command
fail to release nine members of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) in the
state arrested Monday during the strike action against the fuel price
hike.
The police also impounded five
vehicles belonging to the labour congress.
But the Police Public
Relations Officer, Mr. Kolapo Shofoluwe said that the command has enough
men and officers on the ground to crack down any form of civil unrest,
adding that the labour leaders has no right to force members of the public
to stay at home.
The Vice Chairman of the
Nigeria Labour Congress in Anambra State, Mr. Don Onyenjio, said that some
mobile policemen forcefully arrested their members and took them to the
central police station where they were manhandled.
�It was a group of mobile
policemen that couldn�t produce any warrant. They said that we are not
supposed to move around; that Oshiomhole only asked us to stay at home�,
he said.
As at press time both the
labour leaders and the impounded vehicles were still at the central police
station, Awka.
But Shofoluwe said that those
arreste were seen at the Enugu Awka expressway forcing passengers out of a
commuter bus, adding that it was an Assistant Superintendent of Police
attached to 29 police mobile force who informed policemen on patrol in the
area.
Shofoluwe also alleged that
the bus driver was beaten up by the labour officials, adding that
passengers on the said bus came to the CPS to make statements indicting
the labour leaders.
But the state secretary of the
Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) Mr. Chuks Nwankwo,
whose car was impounded by the police, said that no passenger was beaten
up as alleged by Shofoluwe, noting that the police, which is expected to
protect the interest of the masses, allow themselves to be used by
�dictators� as an instrument for destabilization.
In Onitsha, stalls at the
markets were locked while commercial banks in Awka, Onitsha and Nnewi as
well as Ekwulobia were all closed. Luxury bus operators at Onitsha
insisted that they were not going to work until NLC calls off the strike.
At the Government House, Awka
and the Anambra State Secretariat respectively, all offices were closed
while workers discussed at eating joints and drinking
bar.
As at press time, Daily
Independent gathered that members of all trade unions in the state as well
as bus drivers are being mobilised at an undisclosed place in order to
secure the release of the nine labour officials arrested by the
police.
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