From Victor Osula, Abuja
The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has charged the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to ensure the planned protest against bad governance and economic hardship is not hijacked by hoodlums waiting to take advantage of the situation.
President of the TUC, Comrade Festus Osifo, who gave the charge on Thursday, in Abuja, emphasised that the Nigerian Police must comply with the provisions of the Police Act as well as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to provide adequate security for peaceful protesters.
Tagged #EndBadGovernance protest, the planned protest has been scheduled to be held across all states of the Federation as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, in August. The organisers of the protest have been faceless.
Although Osifo disclosed that the TUC would not be mobilising members to join in the protest, he maintained that if Congress had been reached or asked to participate, it probably would have.
“When you are having a protest you need to sit down, have a conversation, have meetings, you plan but as of today, nobody has reached out to us that they want to protest, nobody has asked for our collaboration so how do you expect us to participate in a protest when we don’t know who is organising it?
“We don’t even have any idea whatsoever what is going to happen and as an institution, we also know that we have various organs that we run some of those things with. The leadership never sat down one day on the phone to call for a strike or protest but instead, we called the organs’ meeting to do a review.
“The same way you saw it in the media is the way we have seen it. it’s something we don’t really know who is organising it, we don’t really know who is protesting but all we know is that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is very clear on the issue of protest and the Police Act also mandated the police that when there is a protest they should ensure there is law and order, they should ensure those that are protesting are also protected.
“That is why we are reminding them that the provision in the Police Act and the provision in the Constitution should be respected. If they had contacted us maybe we would have called our organs meeting for us to review but as of today, there is clearly nothing to discuss, there is clearly nothing to review,” he said.
