Ajaero: I Was Beaten Like Common Criminal in Imo State

  IG orders probe 

Onyebuchi Ezeigbo and Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja

President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, has said that he was beaten and humiliated like a common criminal by the policemen who he alleged brutalised him during the ill-fated workers protest in Imo State last week.

This is as the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, yesterday, ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the alleged assault on the person Ajaero.

He said that the only known offence he and other officials of the NLC committed was that they asked thousands of workers being owed arrears of salaries to come out and protest the violation of their rights by the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma.

 Ajaero said that the NLC had earlier undertaken similar protest in Imo State when then Governor Rochas Okorocha was in office and also in Rivers State during the time of Governor Nyesom Woke but the two governors resolved issues amicably with the workers.

Narrating his ordeal at a Press Conference in Abuja yesterday, Ajaero, who still wore a neck collar, said policemen arrested him “hit me and with all manner of objects at the NLC Secretariat in Imo State.

 He said, “The policeman that arrested me, came with all manner of documents and they were asking me why I was challenging Hope, that I should say my last prayer, and that they were taking me to where they called Nja-aba River, and that’s where they will throw me.

 “That was in the process, I don’t know how the same people carried me to police headquarters, to talk with their boss, and brought me down there. And the police people were standing outside as if they were waiting for a common criminal.

 “But that wasn’t the end of my journey. When I got there, they transferred me to another boss, to where they call Tiger Base. It was there that they brought out even what they call court order, and started interrogating me.

“There I was pleading that I need some medical attention. They interrogated me for hours. I think it was in that process that they got a call and took me to the office of the commissioner of police, who now ordered that I should be taken to police hospital,” he added.

Ajaero further said, “I don’t want to be emotional about it. That’s why we’re here today, and I’ve come to tell you that I’m here, I’m alive here today, you know, at least to narrate my story.

“I thank God that I’m alive today. And whosoever has diverted the workers’ money, wherever it might be, has diverted blood money, and has attracted generational curse.”

While recounting events that led to his ordeal, Ajaero said that immediately he and other officials of Labour arrived in Owerri, the Imo State capital, things started to unfold.

“When we got there, the events started unfolding. We addressed the workers and told some of them that came that Sunday with complaints that they have not paid them for years. And we said that will happen tomorrow.

“We asked all the people they were owing to come out since the governor was saying he has paid everybody so that we can assemble them for the governor to see the thousands of people assuming he was not aware.

“It was in the event of doing that, the following day, that we got reports that workers that arrived as early as 7a.m. were beating up, their properties, their belongings, their phones, seized. Some of them with broken eyes.

“Because of that, at around 9a.m., I went there with the assistance of about 20 security personnel. I was in the secretariat of the NLC and called some journalists to join and then some of the officials of the NLC so that we can address the press on the situation in Imo.

“It was then that the police led other people, those uniformed, and in mufti, and they came. And withdrew 20 security personnel we carried to guide us.”

Consequently, Egbetokun directed the Deputy Inspector General in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) to take over the matter.

A statement issued by the Force Public Relations Officer and Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said the primary objective of the probe was to ascertain the true facts surrounding the incident and to address any ambiguities that may exist as the police was inundated with different versions of the incident making investigations imperative to clear the conflicting accounts.

“The Nigeria Police Force understands the importance of transparency and accountability in maintaining public trust.

“The IGP therefore assures the public, most especially the leadership of the organised labour, that a thorough and unbiased inquiry will be conducted to provide clarifications while urging organised labour and the public to remain calm as he personally intervened to address the issues surrounding this incident,” it said.

The statement affirmed that “the investigation has commenced and the Nigeria Police Force guarantees that it will be followed to a conclusive end and appropriate actions will be taken based on the findings of the investigation.”