Abuja | Wednesday
NIGERIAN police on Wednesday arrested the country’s labour leader as he launched a general strike to force down fuel prices and used tear gas to break up a demonstration.
Police moved in shortly after 9:00 am (0800 GMT) and detained Adams Oshiomhole, president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and other union leaders, as they demonstrated outside government offices in Abuja.
More than 500 supporters of the NLC had massed for the protest outside the Federal Secretariat building in the centre of the Nigerian capital, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
When Oshiomhole and the other union leaders arrived and started addressing the crowd, police ordered Oshiomhole to stop.
When he refused, the police fired tear gas and moved in to arrest the union leaders, the reporter said.
Speaking moments later to AFP, police representative Haz Iwendi confirmed the arrests.
“Yes, I can confirm to you. They will be prosecuted and they will be charged,” he said.
And in Lagos, the country’s commercial capital and headquarters of the NLC, NLC General-Secretary John Odah condemned the arrest of Oshiomhole.
“We condemn this arrest in the strongest terms and we call for his immediate release,” he said.
“His arrest has strengthened our resolve to continue the strike with stronger vigour,” he said.
“(President Olusegun) Obasanjo should realise that the right to picketing is recognised internationally and cannot be denied to Nigerian workers,” Odah added.
“We will hold the police responsible for anything untoward that happens to Oshiomhole,” he said.
Among the other union leaders arrested were the leaders of the university lecturers union, the construction union and the chairman of the NLC in Abuja, Odah said. – AFP