- Safiu Kehinde
In the wake of the alleged invasion of its Abuja Headquarters by operatives from the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Police Force yesterday, the Nigeria Labour Congress has demanded the immediate withdrawal of the armed security operatives.
Condemning the invasion in a statement issued earlier today, NLC disclosed that the security operatives broke into their Abuja Headquarters without search warrant.
The armed security operatives were allegedly searching for possible materials connecting pressure group to the #EndBadGovernance protest.
The statement read in part; “This evening at about 8.30pm long after the close of work, a troop of heavily armed security operatives invaded the Labour House, Central Business District, Abuja which serves as the National Headquarters and Secretariat of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
“The security operatives, some from the Nigeria Police Force. some wearing black teeshirts presumably from the Department of State Services (DSS), and others on outright mufti swooped on the 10th Floor of the NLC and arrested the security operative on duty and then commandeered him to the second floor where he was asked to produce the keys to the offices.
“When he told them that he had no such keys on him, they broke into the floor and ransacked the bookshop on the 2M floor carting away hundreds of books and other publications.
“The invading troop claimed that they were looking for seditious materials used for the #EndBadGoveranance Protests.
“The Nigeria Labour Congress condemns in its entirety this new low in security operations in Nigeria. The armed security operatives showed no legal document permitting them to invade the premises of the Nigeria Labour Congress in the ungodly hours of the night.
“Even in the dark days of military rule, NLC secretariats were never invaded and ransacked by security agents. Today is indeed a very sad day for our democracy.”