NLC Faults Police Explanations for Invasion of Its Secretariat

The leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has faulted the explanations given by the Nigeria Police Force on the reason its personnel ransacked the NLC national headquarters in Abuja, calling for an unreserved apology from the police.

Police authorities had said it did not invade the NLC secretariat but only traced a suspected criminal to the building which coincidentally houses the organisation’s office.

But addressing journalists at the NLC Secretariat in Abuja, the Head of Communications and Corporate Affairs, Benson Upah, described the police allegations of tracing a suspected international criminal to the building as laughable.

The Union also challenged the police to come up with proof of any relationship with the alleged criminal.

The union leaders are also not backing down on their demand for an apology from the police, and for the federal government to stop what it called intimidation, and meddling in the affairs of labour unions, else they will be forced to use everything at their disposal including strike to defend their rights. The NLC had raised an alarm that  heavily armed security personnel stormed and raided its headquarters in Abuja on August 8.

According to the union, the operatives stormed the Labour House, as its headquarters is called, around 8:30 pm.

“They broke in and ransacked the bookshop on the 2nd floor carting away hundreds of books and other publications,” said a statement by the NLC’s head of Media and Public Relations, Benson Upah.

“The invading troop claimed that they were looking for seditious materials used for the #EndBadGoveranance Protests,” the union said in a statement.