“Even the military did not raid our offices,” the NLC says in reference to the FG after police officers searched its headquarters for demonstrators.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has criticized the federal government following the police raid on its Abuja offices due to claims that organized labor members were behind the #EndBadGovernance demonstration.

According to DailyTrust, a few labor leaders claimed that when the “masked security agents” broke into the building and searched the office, the NLC’s top leadership had already left.

Comrade Benson Upah, Head of the NLC’s Media and Public Relations, responded by denouncing the act in a statement.

“A troop of heavily armed security operatives invaded the Labour House, Central Business District, Abuja, which serves as the National Headquarters and Secretariat of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) this evening at about 8.30 pm, long after the close of work,” the statement read.

The security personnel, comprising members of the Nigeria Police Force, those in black t-shirts, likely from the Department of State Services (DSS), and those dressed in mufti, ambushed the security officer on duty on the 10th floor of the NLC. They then took him to the second floor, where they demanded that he show the office keys. Upon informing them that he did not own those keys, they broke into the 10th floor and proceeded to loot the second floor bookshop, taking hundreds of books and other publications with them. According to the invading squad, they were searching for seditious documents for the protests against bad governance, or #EndBadGoveranance.

The Nigeria Labour Congress denounces this new low in Nigerian security operations in its entirety. The armed security guards did not present any official documentation allowing them to enter the Nigeria Labour Congress building during the ungodly hours of the night. Security agents never broke into or trashed NLC secretariats, not even during the terrible days of military control. Indeed, this is a really depressing day for our democracy.

According to Ujah, the invasion happened just hours after the National Executive Council of the NLC took notice of and denounced the heinous way security guards were mistreating demonstrators around the nation, “and the needless bloodshed that ensued.”

Additionally, we disapproved of the widespread mass arrests of people thought to be the protest’s leaders. The NEC also objected to the careless use of the word “treason” to characterize the demonstration and called for moderation. What caught us off guard was the heavily armed and disguised security personnel that hours later invaded the Labour House.

We call on the international community to take note of the erosion of democratic principles in the attempt to turn Nigeria into a Police State, given the above and the dire omens it portends for democratic rights, freedom of speech and association, and the unassailable right of citizens to peacefully protest on any issue they feel strongly about. Our fears of a Nigerian state sliding into enforced brutality are well-founded, given the experience of the NLC leadership in recent times at the hands of the state’s naked brute force, particularly the near-daylight assassination of the NLC President by security operatives and thugs. We worry that things could get worse.

In light of the current situation, the Nigeria Labour Congress has instructed all of its employees to avoid the Labour House until we are positive that the invading agents have not left any hazardous or incriminating materials in our premises. We urge an international investigation into this very painful invasion in order to assuage our anxieties.

Lastly, we demand that the invading security agents’ forces leave the Labour House, Abuja, premises right away. We further demand that, by tomorrow, August 8, 2024, at the latest, all books and materials taken by the invading security personnel be unconditionally returned to their original locations. Since there was no court order authorizing the invasion, ransacking, and looting of the publications, we are making this claim in light of the operation’s illegality.