The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called on the Federal Government to pay the withheld salaries of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU).
The NLC warned that the government’s continued inaction on this matter could trigger a significant national industrial protest.
The NLC expressed strong disapproval over the actions of the Federal Capital Territory Police Command Commissioner, Compol Bennett Igweh, for disrupting a peaceful protest by SSANU and NASU members on Thursday. The protest took place at Unity Fountain in Abuja.
In a statement issued by the Head of Information and Public Affairs, Benson Upah, the NLC condemned the police’s use of excessive force to break up the peaceful protest.
According to the NLC, Igweh deployed armoured tanks, assault dogs, and heavily armed police personnel to the protest site, using these means to disperse the protesters violently.
The NLC’s statement highlighted that the police action constituted a direct affront to several legal and constitutional protections, including the 1999 Constitution (as amended), International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions 87 and 98, and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Additionally, the NLC pointed out that the Supreme Court has ruled that citizens do not need police permission to hold peaceful protests, making the police action an illegal affront to the rights of law-abiding citizens.
The statement said, “We need to let the powers that be, especially Compol Igweh and those who sent him that we are not in a Police State and if his intentions are to scare and intimidate workers protesting under the law, then they have picked on wrong customers.
“We fought for this democracy and we will not fold our hands and allow intestinal-minded people to destroy it.
“We are concerned that officers like Compol Igweh who should be inspiring a new generation of officers away from the colonial traditions of policing are the ones leading the charge into the abyss.
“We want to assure him and his ilks that no one will bestow on him a medal for his unprofessional and disgusting behaviour. However, in the event he finds himself as one of the beneficiaries of this new bizarre bazaar of self-bemedalling, we say ahead of time that it is not a medal to wear with honour.
“Under Compol Igweh’s watch, FCT has been crawling with bandits, criminals and crooks (both in low and high places) even in the heart of the city. Life has never been this frightening for law-abiding citizens. Instead of training the turrets of his armoured tanks on these social misfits, it is peaceful workers that are his victims.
“Igweh does not need to go far for a refresher course on safe-guarding FCT. One of his predecessors who is now a DIG (who rid Abuja of crime and still related well with citizens) is only an ear-shot away at Louis Edet House.
“The reason for the peaceful protest by NASU and SSANU is very much in the public domain – non-payment of their four-months withheld salaries after workers in other unions were paid for the same strike action.
“The two unions had exhausted all means lawful over a long stretch of time including a warning strike as means for getting their salaries paid.
“But clearly, the government took their maturity and patience for granted. What the government failed to realise was that it was not only imperilling the tranquillity in the university education environment, it was acting in violation of the constitution which says no citizen should be discriminated against!
“If the government and the police are proud lawbreakers, what moral justification do they have to expect others to be of good behaviour!
“In light of this, we demand an immediate police apology to NASU and SSANU members whom they violated.
“We also demand the immediate payment of the withheld salaries. We had had cause to write to the government as well as issued a press statement on this matter in the recent past.
“Government will be courting a major national industrial protest if it continues to ignore our wise counsel.”
