By Abbanobi – Eku Onyekachi
Abuja
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has warned law enforcement agencies against alleged killing of protesters in the ongoing protest against bad governance.
In a statement by the NLC President Joe Ajaero over the weekend, the Organisation said with unconfirmed reports putting casualties at 40+ in two days of managing the the EndHunger protest across the country, NLC, according to the statement had sufficient reasons (backed up by reports and video clips) to call to question the professionalism of our security person, saying the actions represents massacre of the citizens.
Stating that were the security personnel able to carry out such brutality against bandits or other criminals, Nigeria, the statement went on, would have been an El dorado, adding that as the lead-agency in internal security management, the police bear the burden of the massacre.
Siting examples of areas that suffered the massacre, the NLC said: “Kaduna State police command under the watch of Commissioner of Police (CP) Audu Ali Dabigi represents the worst case scenario in which one of the fleeing protesters was heard on camera desperately appealing to a deployed police personnel to not shoot until his voice was drowned by a hail of bullets with the resultant death of a protester on the spot and several injured.
“In the same breadth, Edo State Police Command under CP Funsho Adegboroye represents the best in crowd management as he could be heard interacting and cajoling the protesters and almost effortlessly bringing them under control. It might be convenient to argue that the two states do have different socio-cultural millieux, however, an incontestable truth common to both, and indeed, all the states that human life is sacred and should never be taken.”
