The United Action Front of Civil Society has asked Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma to resign immediately and leave Nigeria or risk public embarrassment from Nigerian workers and the masses henceforth wherever he goes.
SaharaReporters earlier reported the arrest of the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero by the police in Owerri, the Imo state capital while organising a rally to protest against stalled wage payments for workers in the state.
The NLC later said Ajaero was “thoroughly” brutalised and almost blinded.
The civil society organisation in a statement signed on Friday by Olawale Okunniyi (Veteran Che), Head, National Coordinating Secretariat, stated that the ordeal suffered by the NLC President is a heist by the All Progressives Congress (APC) government against Nigerian workers and masses
The group also asked President Bola Tinubu to tender an unreserved apology to Nigerian workers for the police brutality against Ajaero or face unprecedented mass actions.
The statement reads in part, "The United Action Front of Civil Society again wishes to express our sadness over the bestial brutalisation of the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Joe Ajaero, which was orchestrated by Supreme Court Governor, Hope Uzodimma of Imo State in a bid to thwart a popular mass protest of Labour in Imo State
"Our group wishes to state that this sort of brutality and dehumanisation of the leader of the Nigerian workers has never happened to any leader of the Nigerian Labour movement in the annals of the Labour Movement in Nigeria, not even during the Abacha bestiality in the dark days of the military did this happen. The closest attempt in Kaduna during the last regime failed.
"Hope Uzodimma has definitely crossed the Rubicon for ordering his attack police and thugs to beat up and brutalise the leader of all Nigerian workers. So, he is advised to resign immediately and leave Nigeria or risk public embarrassment from Nigerian workers and masses henceforth wherever he goes.
"Similarly, we find the Bola Tinubu government liable of complicity in this episode of bestiality displayed by the heavily armed force of the Nigerian police, who stormed the take-off venue of the Workers' Rally in Imo and abducted the NLC President to brutalise and murder him because they claimed the workers defied a court injunction.
"To this end, we demand that Mr Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is presently at the head of the reckless Nigerian state should tender an unreserved public apology to Nigerian workers and the President, Comrade Joe Ajaero within the next three days or risk an unprecedented mass actions capable of shutting down State business indefinitely.”
"Enough is Enough! Nigeria belongs to the Nigerian people and workers. We can no longer tolerate this executive recklessness and impunity of the APC rule. It is time to decide who owns Nigeria. APC government has committed a heist against the Nigerian people and workers and it must be atoned for in a big way," the statement added.