Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar says the “oppressive control” by President Bola Tinubu’s administration “surpasses even the harshest days of military dictatorship”.
“The escalating assault on civil society and the media by the Bola Tinubu administration is profoundly disturbing,” he wrote in an X post on Tuesday.
“The recent arrest of Mr. Joe Ajaero, President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, en route to an official event, epitomizes this regime’s relentless campaign to intimidate and subdue organized labour.
“Just days prior, security forces detained a journalist, only to later claim it was a grievous error. What if the outcome had been fatal?
“Now, Tinubu’s regime extends its repressive grasp to encroach upon SERAP Nigeria, an action that stands as a grave affront to our democratic values. This siege is anathema to the principles of freedom and justice.”
The 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said Tinubu and his security apparatus must redirect their “fervour and intimidation towards the actual perpetrators of violence — terrorists and bandits — who are inflicting immeasurable suffering upon the Nigerian people”.
The Department of State Services (DSS) arrested labour leader Joe Ajaero, on Monday morning and released him around midnight.
The labour leader was on his way to the United Kingdom on Monday for a Trade Union Congress (TUC) event when he was arrested at Abuja airport.
The Nigeria Labour Congress president said he was grilled for about 15 hours since his arrest around 7 am at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The labour leader said though he was detained by the DSS, some police officers also came around to grill him at the DSS office in Abuja over the #EndBadGovernance nationwide protests that took place in August.
Ajaero said he was quizzed over alleged terrorism financing involving a British national, Andrew Wynne.
