Protest: Stop The Massacre – NLC Warns Police

The Nigeria Labour Congress on Saturday declared that it has sufficient reasons back up with reports and video clips to call to question the professionalism of security personnel that are carrying out massacre of citizens as a way of managing the #EndHunger protest across the country.

It therefore warned that on no account, should the police use live ammunition in managing protests no matter how difficult they get.

The umbrella organisation of Labour Unions, said that had the security personnel deployed the same thoughtless brutal precision against bandits or other criminals, the country would have been an Eldorado.

The NLC however said that if the police in self-righteousness consider this advice as meddlesomeness and persist in their slaughter, they will be unwittingly creating a situation they were supposed to help avert in the first place.

It therefore declared that if such massacre continue, the organised labour will be left with no choice than the moral burden to act in protection of ordinary citizens.

These were contained in a statement by Comrade Joe Ajaero, President of the NLC, in which he said that unconfirmed reports put casualties at over 40 in two days of managing the EndHunger protest across the country, stressing that as the lead-agency in internal security management, the police bear the burden of this massacre.

The statement which was signed by the Comrade Joe Ajaero, President of the NLC, noted that the Kaduna State police command under the watch of Compol Audu Ali Dabigi represents the worst case scenario in which one of the fleeing protesters was heard on camera desperately appealing to deployed police personnel to not shoot until his voice was drowned by a hail of bullets with the resultant death of a protester on the spot and several injured.

The NLC President said that on the hand and in the same breadth, the Edo State Police Command under the personal command of Commissioner of Police, CP Funsho Adegboroye represents the best in crowd management as he could be heard interacting and cajoling the protesters and almost effortlessly bringing them under control.

Comrade Ajaero said that it might be convenient to argue that the two states do have different socio-cultural milieus, adding however that an incontestable truth common to both, and indeed, all the states is that human life is sacred and should NEVER be taken.

The NLC expressed sadness by the wanton taking of life by trigger-happy police personnel, stressing that one noticeable pattern was the fact that once police personnel introduced violence, all hell broke loose in fulfilment of the credo that violence begets violence.

According to Ajaero; “In Asokoro, Abuja under the command of Compol Bennett Igweh, protesters were heard querying why the police were shelling or tear-gassing them as they were marching solemnly without breaking a twig.

“We pause to ask, what happened to all the years of training or experience? No lessons learnt or was this a case of loss of human values on an industrial scale?

“Don’t our police personnel watch their colleagues in other parts of the world manage equally challenging (if not worse) situations?

The NLC therefore demanded that for a start, the cops with blood stains on their hands should be fished out for appropriate disciplinary action as well as their commanders.

It also demanded for adequate compensations to be paid to the families of casualties while government should be responsible for the treatment and rehabilitation of the injured.

The NLC equally demanded that all those arrested should be released immediately and unconditionally and commended the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) national leadership for directing its human rights committees across the cities to be vigilant.

It further said; “We urge them to see it to it that no one is held against their will in connection with the protest.

“In the days ahead, we look forward to a better crowd control mechanism even as the new directive from the IGP would sound to some of the personnel as a license to kill without reason.

“We would be monitoring closely as the situation unfolds.  The police as the lead-agency vested with power and authority on issues of internal security should not only lead by (a good) example but an inspiration to other services.

“We do believe the ultimate solution lies with government, the decisions it takes, the compromises it is willing to make in the face of the genuine demands by the protesters.

“As we had stated in our statements of July 22nd and 23rd, the clearest path to a lasting solution is for government to sit down with leaders of the protest and negotiate in good faith. “Time is of essence as no one is impressed by the sophistry of government officials/hirelings or threats by the police or the military. We are all Nigerians, after all,” the NLC stressed.