UPDATED: DSS arrest Joe Ajaero at Abuja airport; Labour demand his immediate, unconditional release
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero has been arrested by operatives of the Department of the State Services.
He was arrested this morning at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on his way to the United Kingdom to attend the conference of Trade Union Congress, TUC, in the UK holding today.
Sources have disclosed that at the moment, there are no updates about his arrest.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has commenced a closed-door meeting following the Nigerian government’s arrest of its President, Joe Ajaero.
“The Congress is currently holding a closed-door meeting to discuss the situation, and the outcome will be made public soon,” Benson Upah, the NLC’s spokesperson said.
The labour body has demanded Ajaero’s immediate and unconditional release, warning that this act could have profound and far-reaching consequences for the country’s labour movement.
According to Benson Upah, the NLC’s Head of Public Relations who condemned the detention, labelling it a “brazen act of lawlessness and intimidation,”said Ajaero was apprehended by agents of the DSS without a legal warrant.
The Congress has called on the international community, human rights organisations, and democracy advocates to take note of the rising wave of authoritarianism in Nigeria.
Recall that Ajaero has been on the radar of security agents recently. On August 19, the Police had summoned Ajero to appear the next day on charges of bordering on criminal conspiracy, terrorism financing, treasonable felony, subversion and cybercrime.
And on August 29, Ajaero alongside Falana, Maxwell Opara, Deji Adeyanju, among other lawyers, and Labour leaders, went to the Force Headquarters to honour the Police summons.
