While the nationwide protest of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is going on peacefully in most states in the federation, there are reports from Maiduguri, the Borno state capital that men of the Nigerian police have stopped workers from embarking on their peaceful protests.
According to reports, the police deployed officers to the streets to halt the nationwide protest.
News About Nigeria reported that the protest by organised labour that started today (Tuesday) is against the ongoing economic hardship and the security challenges that are gradually becoming the order of the day in the country.
According to the NLC Chairman of the state, Yusuf Inuwa, despite previous assurances by the police that they would ensure that the protests by workers in the state were peaceful, they ended up frustrating the workers from embarking on the protests.
This was because there were armed policemen who blocked the roads leading to the NLC headquarters in New GRA, Maiduguri where the protest should have started.
Inuwa revealed that the NLC had initially gotten approval for a three-kilometre march from their secretariat.
However, everything changed this morning when the workers who had gathered for the protests were met with a staunch police blockade, on the order of the state police commissioner, Mohammed Yusuf.
Lamenting the impact of the interference by the police, the state’s NLC Chairman noted that “if organised labour is silenced, no one will remain to voice the concerns of the masses.”
He also vowed that despite the setback, organised labour would not stay down but would protest until their demands were met.
