CDWR supported the struggle of casual workers treated like slaves in Sumal Food in 2018 for decent pay and conditions, hence the use of the police and judiciary for persecution.
A group, Campaign for Democratic and Workers Rights (CDWR), has called for an immediate end to the prolonged prosecution of Comrade Abiodun Bamigboye, popularly known as Abbey Trotsky by the Oyo State police commissioner at the instance of Sumal Food Limited.
Abbey and the CDWR supported the struggle of casual workers treated like slaves in Sumal Food in 2018 for decent pay and conditions, hence the use of the police and judiciary for persecution.
However, the Chief Magistrate to whom the matter had been reassigned denied Bamigboye the right to continue to enjoy his previous bail conditions even after the police prosecutor informed the court that he had never been absent from the court since the matter started in 2019.
The magistrate rejected his bail application, claiming that the previous bail bond couldn’t be found in Bamigboye’s case file and that the matter was starting “de novo” (over again).
A fresh bail condition was later given but the magistrate reportedly refused to sign the bond despite having been perfected, and an order to remand Bamigboye (Abbey Trotsky) at Agodi prison was given instead.
According to the CDWR, the only excuse given by the magistrate for not signing the bail bond was that the photocopy of the national ID presented by the surety was not clear enough.
However, the same bail bond was later approved around 5 pm following the intervention of the Nigeria Labour Congress Chairman in Oyo and members of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN).
CDWR, in a press statement signed by Comrade Rufus Olusesan, National Chairperson, and Comrade Chinedu Bosah, National Publicity Secretary, described the ongoing harassment and intimidation of Abbey Trotsky by security operatives in Oyo as an attempt to cover up workers’ maltreatment and silence their voices in the state and beyond.
According to the statement, the trial court where Abbey Trotsky is charged should also grant his legal team access to his case file to assess its authenticity or otherwise and to ensure that no facts were created against him.
The statement reads in part: “The Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR) calls on trade unions, pro-masses organizations, and activists to support the demand for an immediate end to the continuous persecution of Comrade Abiodun Bamigboye, popularly known as Abbey Trotsky, on trumped-up criminal charges by the Nigeria police at the instance of the management of the SUMAL FOOD LIMITED Ibadan.”
According to the group, Abbey has “suffered a series of harassment including arrest and detention by the police and the Department of State Services (DSS) for over three weeks”.
It said he was arrested eight times by the police and DSS between December 19, 2018 and June 9, 2019.
It said, “He was later forced to report weekly at the office of the AIG Zone 11 Osogbo Osun State, between 28 May and 7 June 2019 after which he was arraigned at Iyaganku Magistrate Court on 7 June, 2019 first on four-count criminal charges but later increased to an eight-count charge.
“The last sitting of the lingering criminal matter came up on Wednesday, 20th December 2023 under a new chief magistrate (Mrs) Modupe Ogunsakin for mention and later adjourned till 20th February 2024. Chief Magistrate Ogunsakin is the sixth presiding magistrate in the matter which has had records of seventeen adjournments and seven re-arraignment.
“Unfortunately, the December 20 re-arraignment was the first time Abbey Trotsky was denied the opportunity to continue to enjoy his previous bail condition following a new re-arraignment. The basis for this denial by the chief magistrate despite the application for such by the police prosecutor was that the previous bail bond couldn’t be found in Abbey Trotsky’s case file, hence ruled that the matter was starting afresh (de novo).
“The CDWR faults this basis! That previous bail bonds were missing in Abbey Trotsky’s file is an indictment on the court. It also raises a huge suspicion over the authenticity of the entire case file and the veracity of the documents and information therein. We demand a reproduction of the missing bail bond as well as unrestricted access to the entire case file at least to ascertain its authenticity.
“We commend the Oyo state chair of the NLC, lawyers, and activists whose intervention saved Abbey from being remanded at Agodi Prison by securing his bail. The Chief Magistrate had initially rejected the first surety that stood for his bail and ordered that Abbey be taken to prison.
“It is also important to state that aside from the criminal matter, there is a civil matter which was instituted against Abbey Trotsky at the National Industrial Court (NIC), Ibadan by over 20 outsourcing companies known for indecent labour practices of recruiting workers under a casual or contract employment condition for virtually all leading factories including Sumal Food Limited, in Oyo State.
“Worthy to note that, some of these outsourcing companies were established by some leading rightwing members of the Food Union (National Union of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employees, NUFBTE) and these platforms are notorious for enslaving workers.
“The motive behind the continuous prosecution of Abbey Trotsky is an attempt to make a scapegoat of him, deter other members of CDWR from intervening in the plight of poor casual workers, and strike fear into the hearts of casual workers across workplaces in the state and country at large.
“This is more so that a new minimum wage which will be due for an upward review in the first quarter of the year 2024 could also trigger a fresh round of agitation for pay rise among workers from one workplace to another in the state and across the country.”
CDWR called on the “national leadership of the NLC and TUC to join us in the CDWR to demand an end to the state prosecution of Abbey Trotsky at the instance of Sumal Food Limited and also immediately commence a serious national campaign against casualisation and other related indecent labour practices”.