From George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
Imo State Chairman of the Labour Party, Calistus Ihejiagwa has alleged that the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma was trying to turn Imo into a police state, where nobody has any rights to personal liberty or freedom of speech.
This is even as the party has called for the immediate redeployment of the state Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Barde, who they accused of being a lackey of the governor.
The party, while speaking on the brutalisation of Comrade Joe Ajaero, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Wednesday, said every true citizen of the state, especially workers, must condemn the act.
The party also said that for three years and seven months, the workers and pensioners have been denied their salaries and pensions.
Said he: “Comrade Ajaero was addressing workers at the NLC Secretariat when the government’s thugs swooped on them. They beat him up alongside the General Secretary and the Deputy President of the dockworkers who reportedly suffered broken arms, while their phones and other valuables were collected from them.
“They locked him up and when they saw that his health was failing as a result of their merciless beatings and dehumanisation, they released him in the evening and some good Samaritans rushed him to the hospital where he is being treated.”