By Akinwale Kasali
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, has said he is not a card carrying member of the Labour Party. Ajaero said this following the mixed feelings which greeted photographs of him in a relaxed mood with the Imo State LP Governorship Candidate which surfaced in the Social Media on Thursday.
The All Progressives Congress, APC, had earlier accused Ajaero of membership of the LP, and alleged that his mission to Imo State was to further the fortunes of the LP Governorship Candidate, Athan Achonu, with whom he had allegedly met in Abuja.
But speaking to Journalists on Friday in Abuja, for the first time, since his ordeal in Owerri, Ajaero strongly denied being a card-carrying member of the LP. “I an not a card-carrying member of the Labour Party. It is false”, he emphasised.
On his brutalisation in Owerri, Ajaero indicted the Police. He held the Imo State Police Command for his ordeal, and insisted that they, along with thugs blind-folded him and beat him up like a common criminal.
Ajaero spoke a day after the World Owerri Peoples Congress, WOPC, in an advertorial in both National and Local Newspapers, called out some Police Officers, and condemned what it described as their unprofessional conduct in Ajaero’s humiliation. While WOPC described the situation as shameful, especially, the claim by the Police that it took Ajaero into protective custody to avoid his being lynched, it questioned the level of security provided the NLC President by the Police.
WOPC said the denial by the Police of complicity “raise vital questions as to what level of security, if any, that was provided by the State Police Command to Comrade Joe Ajaero while in the State executing the office of the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress.
“Second was the unprofessional and open bellicose disposition of ACP David Ogenyi, CP Ahmed Barde, and SP Shaba identified by the NLC President as being front and centre in ignominious onslaught.”
It asked for a thorough investigation and justice. It said: “The World Owerri Peoples Congress demand accountability and justice in this matter. We are, therefore, calling on the Nigerian President and the Inspector General of Police to thoroughly investigate the alleged role of the local law enforcement agents in the unfortunate extra judicial violent assault and humiliation meted out to Comrade Joe Ajaero, an Owerri son, in his own very home community in the act of executing the office of the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress.”
According to Ajaero: “I was arrested by the Police and handed over to waiting thugs who thoroughly beaten me up”, he told the Journalists.
The thugs, he said, were about seven in number. He said they dragged him on the floor like a common criminal. Ajaero had, also, earlier said he was blind- folded, and feared that given the terrain he felt the vehicle he was put in was driving on, he was being taking down a river to be killed and thrown into the river.
However, contrary to earlier claims, the NLC President neither mentioned the name of Chinasa Nwaneri, Special Adviser to Governor Hope Uzodimma on Special Duties, as the one who led the attack on him, nor did he say Nwaneri was present.
And contrary to the claims that Ajaero did not take necessary official precautions before his trip to Owerri, Ajaero said he wrote to all the Security Agencies before he and his members went to Imo State for the protest on November 1, 2023.
According to him, workers who arrived at the venue of the protest on that day around 7 am were beaten up by thugs and their phones seized.
Ajaero said he got there around 9 am after he got the report of the assault on workers, but was arrested by the Police and handed over to thugs.
He lamented: “I can’t explain the beating I received. They tied my hands and dragged me on the floor like a common criminal.”
