Police Attack NLC Members In Ebonyi

The Chairman of the Ebonyi State chapter of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) Mr Ikechukwu Nwafor has been hospitalised after being beaten by the police, as the union protested the hike in the pump price of petrol.

The fuel price was increased from N86.50 to N145.

Nwafor was reportedly admitted at the emergency ward of the Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki.

The labour leader condemned the police action, saying: “the police treated them like a `common criminal’.

“The policemen, led by senior officers, beat me to the ground, made me roll severally before bundling me into their van after some merciless beating.

“They pelted the venue with bouts of teargas canisters, molested our female colleagues and detained us after the attacks.”

He accused the police of “acting a script that will soon be unravelled.”

“The police claimed we did not inform them of the intended protest but we did so in writing. This is in the possession of the Commissioner of Police.

“We have informed our national leadership of the incident, who promised to handle the matter appropriately,” he said.

Commissioner of Police in Ebonyi, Mrs Peace Ibekwe-Abdallah, however, urged Nwafor to be truthful to himself on the alleged attack.

“The NLC people were dispersed in the most minimal way; I deployed the Officer in Charge of Operations and the Commander in charge of the Mobile Force to the venue of the gathering.

“These are highly distinguished officers. I believe their reports. It is not a case of deploying patrol teams to fire into the air while dispersing the labour people.

“He, Nwafor was rolling on the ground, showing that he was injured but I bluntly told him and his men that every Nigerian feel the pinch of the situation in the country.

“The command can no longer tolerate the situation where people go to public places and decide to deny other people their fundamental rights,” she said.