SaharaReporters reported earlier on Wednesday that operatives of the Nigerian Police Force arrested Ajaero while organising a rally to protest against stalled wage payments for workers in the state.
Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State has explained the reasons behind the attack on national president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero in the state.
SaharaReporters reported earlier on Wednesday that operatives of the Nigerian Police Force arrested Ajaero while organising a rally to protest against stalled wage payments for workers in the state.
SaharaReporters also reported that the police denied arresting Joe Ajaero during a protest in Imo State on Wednesday morning.
The Imo State Command Public Relations Officer, ASP Okoye Henry, who denied the arrest, explained that the police presence during the workers’ protest was necessitated due to a subsisting court order which barred the union from holding any demonstration in the state.
It was also reported that the NLC confirmed its President, Comrade Ajaero was thoroughly brutalised and rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri with his right eye completely shut.
The NLC's Head of Information and Publicity, Comrade Benson Upah, described the arrest and assault suffered by Ajaero as “attempted murder”.
Upah said that contact was made with Ajaero “around 15:30 hours at the Police Hospital in Owerri from where he was taken to Federal Medical Centre, Owerri where he is receiving medical attention."
But reacting to the incident, Governor Uzodinma, who is facing a reelection on November 11, claimed that the NLC President was attacked because he was meddling in the state’s politics.
Uzodimma who spoke to journalists after receiving the All Progressives Congress’ flag from President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, said he stopped the NLC’s national leadership from dissolving the Imo State chapter of the Congress.
“What has happened in this ugly coincidence is that the National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress is from Imo State and has not been able to demarcate the difference between being a national leader of an organisation and then an interested party in local politics,” he said.
He said, “I understand the sensitivity of this event (protest). But I want you people to be careful because there is an attempt to mix up partisan politics or an attempt to blackmail my government.
“I can tell you that my people are already aware; that was why the NLC Imo State chapter addressed a world press conference that what their national leadership is doing is not correct and that they are not going to embark on any strike or protest.
“In the process, they decided to dissolve them to put in a caretaker. Of course, I’m the Chief Security Officer and I have a responsibility to intervene. I encourage the national leadership not to dissolve a management team that their tenure has not expired, and that was what they did.”
The governor, who said he does not interfere in labour matters, said he has convinced his “workers in Imo State to believe in me, and that trust is what opposition parties are trying to fight.”