Abigail ErhiagbojeThe National Labour Congress (NLC), has accused the Imo State Police of not only arresting the President of the Union, Joe Ajaero, but also brutalising him afterwards.
The NLC’s Head of Media and Publicity, Benson Ujah disclosed this in a Press Statement confirming the release of the president in Imo State on Wednesday.
According to him, “Contact was made with Congress President, Comrade Joe Ajaero this evening 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.”
The police had said Mr Ajero was detained by them for his protection, but the union said he was brutalised after his arrest.
“Thoroughly brutalised, his (Ajeoro’s) right eye at the time of contact was completely shut.”
“Ajaero who said little stated that immediately after his arrest, he was beaten up, blindfolded and taken to an unknown destination where more brutalisation took place, sometimes with bottles.”
The NLC president’s phones, money and other personal items were collected from him and have not been returned to him, according to Mr Ujah.
He was arrested by the police at the NLC secretariat in Owerri, the Imo State capital, on Wednesday.
The president went to the state for the NLC’s statewide protest and strike over issues of lack of respect for workers, unpaid salaries and pensions, among others.
Reacting to the news, the Imo State Police Command issued a statement, denying the allegations of brutalising the NLC president, adding that he was only picked up for his safety.
The Command spokesperson, ASP Okoye Henry, in his statement claimed that in the course of mobilising for NLC protest in the state, a mob emerged and attacked Mr Ajero and that upon receiving the report, it “swiftly deployed police operatives to the scene where the Officer in Charge exercised operational discretion by taking the NLC President into protective custody at the State Command Headquarters to ensure the protection of his life and that he was not lynched in the scuffle that followed.”
Continuing, the statement said: “The Commissioner of Police thereafter directed that he should be taken to the Police Medical Services, Owerri, where he would be accorded medical attention as a result of the attack. He has therefore been accorded adequate security cover to proceed on his other legitimate engagements for the day.”
However, NLC disputed the police account of the incident, stating that Mr Ajaero was brutalised after his arrest and not before.
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