The senator for Edo North and former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Adams Oshiomhole, on Wednesday, recounted a moment of assault at the hands of Department of State Services (DSS) operatives during his tenure as the labour leader between 1999 and 2007.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Oshiomhole recounted his experiences in the wake of the recent attack in Imo State on current NLC president Joe Ajaero, which sparked an indefinite nationwide strike that started on Tuesday.
Something similar happened to me. I went to the airport on my way to Delta State,” he remarked.
We had given the then-President Olusegun Obasanjo-led Federal Government an ultimatum, and the then-director of SSS ordered that I be detained and barred from flying.
He claimed that the purpose of the ultimatum was to keep the fuel subsidy in place despite our concerns about the ensuing rise in living expenses.
“They dragged me across the tarmac, and I was covered in cuts.” The former labour leader claimed, “They forcibly stopped me from flying and brought me back to the DSS director general’s office, then Col. [Kayode] Are.”
“I told him no, I can’t even trust a government that has inflicted this kind of wound on me to treat me,” when he offered to take me to their own hospital. They could as well contaminate my blood. I said that I would not do that.