NLC tackles Okorocha over concession of parastatals

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) said yesterday that it is poised for a showdown with the Imo state Governor, Rochas Okorocha, for allegedly forcing the concession of some of the state’s parastatals, the development it said has put workers of the parastatals jobs on the line. NLC in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by its National Secretary, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, alleged that the state government has been using the Nigeria Police Force to chase out workers from offices, especially workers of the affected paratatals, in order to achieve its objective.

In the statement titled “We’ll Resist This” the union lamented that scores of workers have been arrested, brutalised and teargassed in the course of the high handedness by the state government. While condemning what it called unwholesome tactics in the pursuit of a dangerous agenda by Governor Okorocha, the NLC, said it would resist the use of the police to deal with an issue that is purely industrial. It called on the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, to immediately call to order the Imo State Police Commissioner, in order to forestall a complete breakdown of law and order.

It further warned that it would mobilise its Imo state affiliates, State Councils and Civil Society allies to enforce the rights of its members, if the police persist in the brutalisation and forceful ejection of workers from their offices. Meanwhile, the Imo State Government yesterday described as mischievous, the claim that Governor Rochas Okorocha, was using the graduation ceremony of the Rochas Foundation College, Kano, to kick-start the governor’s campaign for his 2019 presidency bid.