Nigerian Security Agents Arrest Top Labour Leader: Union

Faizan Hashmi Published September 10, 2024 | 02:00 AM

Lagos, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Sep, 2024) Nigeria's domestic security agency on Monday arrested one of the country's top labour leaders, his union said, days after he called on the government to reverse a fuel price hike.

Labour unions in June shut down the national grid for a day, stalled domestic flights and closed government offices to protest over Nigeria's high costs of living.

Joe Ajaero, who leads the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), was arrested at Abuja airport on his way to the United Kingdom, NLC spokesman Benson Upah said.

NLC is an umbrella of dozens of unions with tens of thousands of members, from civil servants and teachers to oil sector workers and transport employees.

"His detention is a brazen act of intimidation and completely unjustified under the laws of our nation," Upah said in a statement.

NLC said the Department of State Security (DSS), an agency handling domestic security threats, arrested Ajaero days after he lashed out at the government for hiking prices of petrol and after he said union leaders would meet over strike action.

He had also accused the government of "muzzling lawful dissent".

Africa's most populous nation is going though its toughest cost of living crisis in years, with inflation at more than 30 percent and the naira Currency sharply devalued.