Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President, Comrade Joe Ajaero has been arrested.

He was whisked away by the Police in Owerri, Imo State over an ongoing protest by members of the union in the state.

We were told that the protest was hijacked by hoodlums who smashed vehicles and inflicted wounds on labour members.

For those who don’t know, the union had on Sunday announced that it would stage a protest in the state over the alleged violation and abuse of rights and privileges of workers by the State government.

We gathered that as Ajaero was about to address the gathering, a team of armed Policemen came and took him away alongside some officials of the NLC.

NLC’s Head of Information and Publicity, Benson Upah said:

“The NLC President was abducted by men suspected to be Policemen armed to their teeth at the Imo state NLC secretariat on Wednesday as we were about to commence our lawful protest against the violation of trade union rights of the workers.”

NLC Deputy General Secretary and Chief of Staff to the NLC President, Chris Onyeka said:

“As workers were gathering to protest their maltreatment by the state government in Owerri, Imo state and the President of NLC was about to address the workers, the Police came amidst attacks by thugs to arrest Ajaero.”

“Thugs first attacked and dragged Ajaero from the platform before Police came to arrest him along with another senior official of the NLC.”