By Ogbagah Matthias & Umukoro Best
UGHELLII – Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has threatened an indefinite Nationwide Strike and to crumble the country’s economy if the Nigerian Police invitation to its national president, Comrade Joe Ajaero, snowballed to his arrest, directed its affiliate members and all workers in the country to down tools.
NLC made the threats and directives during its emergency national executive council meeting held on Tuesday, August 20, 2024, at the Labour House.
The position of NLC was contained in a communique signed by NLC Deputy President Kabiru Ado Sani and made available to newsmen at its emergency National Executive Council meeting held at the Labour House on Tuesday, August 20, 2014.
Sani, while briefing the workers who had assembled at the Labour House in solidarity with the Congress President and to follow him to the Police headquarters, said that the invitation to Ajaero was an invitation to workers.
Sani said: “At the end of the meeting, we reached some certain resolutions. Part of the resolution is that, as a committed labor center, we agreed that we abide by the rule of law and due process.
“We will honor the invitation of the Nigerian police because we are not a faceless organization, but we believe that we need an extension of time, after consultation with our lawyers, because this invitation was extended to the Congress President yesterday and asked to report at the police by 10 am today.
“So we are already working with our lawyers to look for an extension of time, but this does not legitimize the charges by the Nigerian police to the Congress leadership, and secondly, we resolve that in the event our Congress President was arrested or detained at any moment, we put our affiliate on red alert to mobilise our membership across the country, that all workers in this country should down tool their services.
“This is the resolution because, Comrades, this organization belongs to all of us. Therefore, we should do everything possible to safeguard the safety of this organization. We, therefore, thank you very much, and you should wait for further directives from our leadership.
“Whatever happens, we will communicate your leadership, and your leadership will communicate with you. So we urge you to remain calm and go back peacefully to our workplace and await further directives.”
