The leadership of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to withdraw his men from the headquarters of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).
NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, who gave the warning signal after the emergency meeting held to discuss the activities of police on Monda:, cited the invasion of the union as the reason for his call.
Two weeks ago, NURTW announced that its National President, Tajudeen Ibikunle Baruwa, and three other officials were arrested at the union’s national secretariat in Garki 2, Abuja “without any tenable reasons”.
Ajaero said: “The Nigeria Police has had a recent history of interfering in the internal affairs of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and indeed other Unions. The Police has usurped the powers of arbitration in industrial disputes contrary to the dictates of the statutes governing the nation’s industrial relations claim”.
He wondered why the IGP has acquiesced on the invasion of the national secretariat intending to dethrone a legally elected leadership and install a stooge in the union without lawful order.
According to him, “there is a known democratically elected leadership of the NURTW led by Comrade Tajudeen Baruwa. Violence and bloodletting may be imminent in counter response to this illegal action. A national shutdown is possible given this undemocratic action in a democracy”.
“To demand that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu being a product of democracy clears his name which is being peddled by those who have committed this brigandage and unconstitutionality from further being used to scuttle democracy.
“That if nothing is done within an acceptable time, Nigerian workers under the leadership of the NLC will be forced to call all its affiliates out in support of the legally elected”.
