The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has alleged that operatives of the Federal Capital Territory Police Command attacked members of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU).

Members of SSANU and NASU were said to have embarked on a protest in Abuja on Thursday over the continued withholding of their salaries by the federal government.

However, as the leadership of both unions started to address their members at Unity Fountain, the FCT Commissioner of Police, Benneth Igwe, reportedly stormed the scene with armoured vehicles and Hilux vans to block the gates and hindered the movement of the protesters.

In a press statement signed by its spokesperson, Benson Upah, the NLC condemned the police commissioner’s action and threatened to protest nationwide if he failed to apologise for trampling on both unions’ rights to peacefully conduct their protest.

It demanded “an immediate police apology to NASU and SSANU members whom they violated. We also demand the immediate payment of the withheld salaries,” warning that the “Government will be courting a major national industrial protest if it continues to ignore our wise counsel.”

The NLC said Mr Igweh earned its outrage and contempt by violently breaking up its affiliate unions’ peaceful protest after he deployed “armoured tanks, assault dogs, and police personnel in battle gear which broke up the peaceful protest using excessive force and other hostile means.”

The congress stated that the action by the police “is an affront to the 1999 constitution (as amended), ILO Conventions 87 and 98 and African Charter on People and Human Rights which guarantee freedom of association and speech; a violation of the Supreme Court ruling that citizens do not need the permit or approval of the police to peacefully protest and an insult to the dignity of sef-respecting and law-abiding citizens.”

The NLC said, “the powers that be, especially Compol Igweh and those who sent him, that we are not in a police state and if his intentions are to scare and intimidate workers protesting under the law, then they have picked on the wrong customers.”

It vowed that after fighting for democracy, it won’t allow “intestinal-minded people destroy it.”

The NLC expressed concerns that the police commissioner, rather than inspiring a new generation of officers away from colonial traditions of policing, is leading the charge into an abyss, adding that any medal bestowed on him “for his unprofessional and disgusting behaviour” is not one to wear with honour.

The union advised Mr Igweh to go for a refresher course on how to safeguard the metropolis from activities of bandits and other terrorists and not make peaceful workers his victims.

However, the FCT police spokesperson, Josephine Adeh, did not respond to Peoples Gazette’s calls and messages regarding the alleged attack on protesting ASUU and SSANU members.