EndBadGovernance protest: Probe over police invasion of NLC office pending one year after

The Nigeria Police Force and the Office of the National Security Adviser have kept Nigerians in the dark over investigations on the raid carried out by police operatives on the headquarters of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) during the August 2024 #EndBadGovernance protest, Weekend Trust reports. The Force has also kept sealed lips on the […]

The Nigeria Police Force and the Office of the National Security Adviser have kept Nigerians in the dark over investigations on the raid carried out by police operatives on the headquarters of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) during the August 2024 #EndBadGovernance protest, Weekend Trust reports.

The Force has also kept sealed lips on the outcome of the investigations carried out on how the President of the Congress, Joe Ajaero, was beaten up and injured at Owerri, the Imo State capital, by a group of armed personnel suspected to be police operatives during a demonstration in the state.

The NLC headquarters, popularly called Labour House and located in the heart of the nation’s capital, Central Business District Abuja, was ransacked by some gun-wielding police officers after working hours when the majority of the occupants had left for their respective homes.

The raid came on the heels of the nationwide #EndBadGovernance protest when many Nigerians took to the streets to register their displeasure at what they described as widespread hardship in the country.

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The protest, which was held between August 1 and August 10, 2024, saw massive demonstrations in several parts of the country, particularly in Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Gombe, Jigawa, Borno, and the Federal Capital Territory.

The demonstrations degenerated into violence and looting of public places in some states, especially in Kano, where a digital infrastructure was destroyed.

The mass action also took a different dimension when some persons started calling for regime change, particularly in the northern part of the country.

The Russian flag was flown in different parts of the country, forcing President Bola Tinubu to summon heads of security agencies to Aso Rock, where he ordered them to crack down on those threatening democracy in Nigeria.

Subsequently, the federal government and the Nigerian police hinted that they had intelligence that members of the organised labour fuelled the nationwide demonstration by using the NLC headquarters as one of the strategic points to sponsor the agitators.

On Wednesday, August 7, 2024, some masked security operatives, who were fully armed, stormed the Labour House at about 9pm and headed for the 10th floor of the building, where they arrested a private security guard attached to the edifice.

Initially, there was confusion regarding the identity of the security agency the operatives belonged to. They were first suspected to be operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) because of the secret police’s past records.

But the spokesman of the DSS at the time, Peter Afunanya, dissociated his organisation from what labour stakeholders described as an “unholy operation”.

Weekend Trust gathered that the leadership of the organised labour comprising the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) eventually revealed that the police masterminded “the intimidation and reckless operation”. 

The NLC, while speaking through its Head of Media and Information, Benson Upah at the time, described the raid as an “illegality of the highest order”, arguing that even during the military regime in the country, offices of the labour unions were never raided, let alone seeing such happenings during a democracy.

“This evening (Wednesday) at about 8.30 pm long after the close of work, a troop of heavily armed security operatives invaded the Labour House, Central Business District, Abuja which serves as the National Headquarters and Secretariat of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

“The security operatives, some from the Nigeria Police Force, some wearing black tee-shirts presumably from the Department of State Services (DSS), and others in outright mufti, swooped on the 10th Floor of the NLC and arrested the security operative on duty and then commandeered him to the second floor, where he was asked to produce the keys to the offices.

“When he told them that he had no such keys on him, they broke into the 10th floor and ransacked the bookshop on the 2nd floor, carting away hundreds of books and other publications. The invading troop claimed that they were looking for seditious materials used for the #EndBadGovernance protests,” Upah had explained.

Stakeholders within the labour sector have berated the police and the federal government for failing to update Nigerians on the outcome of the investigations on two scenarios.

Findings by our correspondent on Thursday showed that the police high command had yet to return all the books and other materials carted away by the police operatives from the 10-storey building 12 months later.

Sources within the police and the Labour House confided in our correspondent that the materials had since been handed over to the Office of the National Security Adviser.

“The books and other materials, which were suspected to be used for the #EndBadGovernance protest, were handed over to the ONSA. If they were to be returned, the government would follow appropriate channels to return them,” one of the sources within the security circle told Weekend Trust.

 

Briton declared wanted

Barely one month after the raid on the NLC headquarters, Police High Command declared a British national, Andrew Wynne, and his alleged Nigerian collaborator, Lucky Obiyan, wanted for allegedly plotting to overthrow the President Bola Tinubu-led administration.

It also placed a N20m bounty on the duo, arguing that their offences range from terrorism financing, treasonable felony, cybercrime and subversion to criminal conspiracy.

The Force spokesman, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, now a Deputy Commissioner of Police, said the Briton was contacted many times, and he refused to show up even after his bookshop situated at Labour House was invaded.

Adejobi insisted that some offences had been established against Wynne, adding that his accomplices had been arraigned.

“We have established an offence or offences against him, and we have even declared him wanted. His accomplices have been charged to court. Let him come out.

“At least those people worked for him. As a good leader, as a businessman, as a smart man who mobilised and organised sleeper cells to cause problems in Nigeria,” he had said.

However, 12 months after the back-and-forth, authorities of the Nigerian police had not revealed the outcome of the probe.

When our correspondent called Adejobi, the Force spokesman, on Wednesday, his phone rang out. He subsequently replied to a WhatsApp message sent to him, promising to make enquiries on the matter and get back.

“I will find out. You know we worked together with the NSA on it. I may direct you to them tomorrow depending on my findings, please,” he stated.

Subsequent calls to him were not answered as of the time of filing this report on Friday.

Similarly, several phone calls to the Director of Legal at ONSA, Zakari Mijinyawa, to get an update about the matter, were also rejected.

 

We’re waiting for NSA’s intervention –NLC

But in an interview with Weekend Trust, the leadership of the NLC said it suspended different actions mapped out against the government and the police on the matter because of the promise made by the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu.

Speaking to our correspondent, Upah, the Head of Media and Information at the NLC headquarters, explained that the union had intended to institute a civil action against the police but rescinded the move because of Ribadu’s intervention.

“I’m not sure we instituted a civil action, given an understanding between the police and us at the end of the day. Eventually, we didn’t institute a civil action against the police.

“Note that certain promises were made to investigate that matter, including the matter in Owerri. You know we’re patient people. The National Security Adviser said he was going to investigate the Owerri matter and the invasion.

“If you remember, these were some of the conditions that made us call off some actions that would have been taken nationwide,” Upah said.