The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Rivers State have called off their scheduled demonstration against the ongoing police roadblock at local government area secretariats.
Chairmen of the labour centres said the suspension followed reports of plans by some individuals to incite violence under the guise of being labour members. At a joint press briefing in Port Harcourt on Sunday, NLC Chairman Alex Agwanwor urged the police to apprehend anyone who protests in the unions’ name on Monday. He advised Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) members who initially proposed the protest to wait for further directives from the labour centres.
The NLC Chairman and his TUC counterpart, Ikechukwu Onyefuru, also dismissed accusations from former Local Government Chairmen that state labour leaders are partisan. The unions had on Friday asked the police, who took taken over local government secretariats in the state, to vacate the council premises.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) call for a state of emergency in the state, the police takeover of council secretariats, and the formation and inauguration of Caretaker Committees in the 23 Local Government Areas were the three main topics of discussion at the Friday meeting. The state’s NLC president recognised that the police were doing a good job keeping the calm, but she said that denying employees access to their offices was against their rights.
He pleaded with Rivers State Commissioner of Police Kayode Egbetokun, the Inspector General of Police, to order employees to be allowed entry into their offices so they could perform their official jobs. The labour unions threatened to mobilise their members to retake their positions if their appeal was denied.
