The Commissioner of Police, Akwa Ibom State, Waheed Ayilara, has deployed 3,200 police officers across the state to ensure law and order as the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its affiliates begin a nationwide protest.
The Police Public Relations Officer for the state, SP Odiki Macdon, said in a statement on Tuesday that the commissioner had met with the state chapter of the NLC, other labour unions and stakeholders to discuss the planned protest.
He said the commissioner had agreed that freedom of expression and association are enshrined constitutional rights, but added that such rights must be exercised within the ambit of the law and without disrupting public peace.
“The CP, while calling on the labour union and residents of the state to consider the peace of the state as sacrosanct, warned criminal elements who may want to take advantage of any form of protest to perpetrate evil, to have a rethink as the Command will identify and deal decisively with those fomenting trouble,” the statement read.
He also urged the NLC to be peaceful in their conduct and advised all residents of the state to go about their lawful businesses as there would be watertight police security at all times.
This is coming after the president of NLC, Joe Ajaero said the police must live up to its constitutional responsibility “and ensure that the protest is peaceful.”
“The rally goes on and it is part of their constitutional responsibility to ensure that the rally is peaceful,” Ajaero said on Monday after a late meeting with the Federal Government in Abuja.
He said the meeting, which was hosted by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, and attended by the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, and some ministers, was not opened to the media.
He said the two labour centres in the country, the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), were also in attendance, and that the NLC delegation was led by him, while Festus Osifo led the TUC delegation.
He said the Federal Government had appealed to the labour unions to shelve their planned protest slated for February 27 and 28, 2024, but that the labour unions had rejected the appeal.
He said the Minister of Information, Muhammad Idris, who spoke after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Monday, had claimed that the Federal Government had fulfilled almost all the demands put forward by the labour unions, but that the labour unions had disagreed with the claim.
He said the NLC had insisted that the Federal Government must implement its agreement with the organised labour as well as address the mounting economic crisis of survival in Nigeria.
“Nigeria is battling rising inflation, food inflation, forex crisis, economic hardship and high cost of living occasioned by the removal of petrol subsidy, which attracted protests in parts of the country,” he noted
Calling on all workers and Nigerians to join the protest, Ajaero said “labour unions will not be cowed by the subtle pressure from the government to abandon their planned protest.”
