The Imo State Governor Senator Hope Uzodinma has accused Mr Joe Ajaero, the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), of playing politics with the labour movement.
Speaking with journalists on Thursday at the presidential villa, Uzodinma said there is an attempt to mix partisan politics with labour issues in the state to blackmail his administration.
On Wednesday, Ajaero was reportedly picked up from the Imo council secretariat of the NLC in Owerri by heavily armed police officers. The NLC said Ajaero was beaten and blindfolded immediately after he was arrested by security operatives. The labour union asked President Bola Tinubu to call Uzodinma to order over the incident.
Denying the arrest, the police command in Imo said the NLC president was taken into protective custody to avoid being lynched by a mob. The police said the NLC president had a heated argument with some individuals who resisted the picketing of the airport in Imo.
The Imo governor added that he has been paying salaries regularly since he assumed office in January 2020, adding that his administration does not owe any state worker. Uzodinma accused the leadership of the NLC of attempting to blackmail his administration.
“When I came into Imo state as the governor on January 15, 2020, from 2020 January till date, there’s no month we have not paid salary before 30th,” he said.
“The situation is that before this time, I thought that the trade union is a democratic entity that allows the opinion of people. I challenge any Imo State civil servant to come out and say that between 2020 January 15, till date, that he has not received salary in any of the month.
“What has happened in this ugly incident is that the national president of Nigeria Labour Congress is from Imo state and has not been able to demarcate the difference between being a national leader of an organisation and an interested party in local politics. But God will manage the situation.
“So, I understand the sensitivity of this event, but I want you people to be very careful because there’s an attempt to mix up partisan politics or an attempt to blackmail my government.
“But I can tell you that my people are already aware and that was why the Nigerian Labour Congress Imo State chapter, addressed a world press conference, that what their national leadership is saying is not correct.”
