In a recent development, the Nigerian government has dispatched a team of soldiers, police officers, and security personnel to disperse members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.
These NLC and TUC members had gathered at the airport in response to their call to aviation workers, requesting them to halt all flights to Owerri, Imo State. This action was in reaction to the reported assault on NLC President Joe Ajaero, allegedly carried out by police officers associated with Governor Hope Uzodimma’s administration.
According to the NLC’s statement from last week, Ajaero was physically assaulted and detained by security personnel, and his belongings, including his phone, were still unrecovered.
At the protest site, union members sang and chanted, holding banners with messages like ‘We Stand With Oppressed Imo State Workers – An Injury To One Is An Injury To All.’
One of the protesters informed Sahara Reporters that a group of security forces, including the Department of State Security, the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Army, and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, were present at the airport with instructions to disperse the gathering, but as of the time of reporting, no confrontation had occurred.
