Labour to Okorocha: Stop torturing workers

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has berated the Nigeria Police Force and Imo State governor Rochas Okorocha over Thursday’s shooting of a medical consultant with the Federal Medical Centre Owerri, Bede Azudiaro, during a protest march by the Imo State branch of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA). The NLC, in a statement by its president, […]

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has berated the Nigeria Police Force and Imo State governor Rochas Okorocha over Thursday’s shooting of a medical consultant with the Federal Medical Centre Owerri, Bede Azudiaro, during a protest march by the Imo State branch of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).
The NLC, in a statement by its president, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, said that the shooting of the medical doctor is a pointer to the rising degree of intolerance for alternative view point by Gov. Rochas Okorocha.
 The statement reads: “We at the Nigeria Labour Congress condemn this bestial and despicable act in its entirety. Even in wars without rules, medical doctors and other health workers enjoy the singular distinction of protection and preservation by combatants on either sides. For the police to therefore fire live ammunition at peacefully-protesting doctors asking for their legitimate rights runs counter to any known rule of engagement.”
 The NLC said that the shooting of the medical doctor, who is lying critically ill, is not an isolated case but part of a growing terror culture instituted by Governor Okorocha, alleging that in the past two weeks alone, his armed militia had beaten a medical doctor at Uboma Hospital to a state of coma as well as brutalized several others.
 “The use of the armed police and militia against law-abiding workers by the governor of Imo State is unlawful, immoral and betrays the principles of democracy and should be resisted by all.
“Accordingly, we at the Nigeria Labour Congress demand that the leadership of the Nigeria Police Force not only immediately bring to book this trigger-happy police man but weed from its ranks all characters undeserving of the police uniform,” said the NLC.
  The congress, however, warned that if no appropriate action is taken against the governor, it will in the principle of self defence, respond at its own time, saying “our calm and deference to the rule of law should not be mistaken as cowardice. Workers, like any other group of Nigerians, have rights guaranteed by the law.”
  It would be recalled that Dr. Bede Azudiaro was shot in Owerri, Thursday,  by an unidentified person during a protest march by the Imo State branch of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).
The association had embarked on a peaceful protest march to register their position over what they described as total collapse of public health institutions in the state.