Senator Adams Oshiomhole, representing Edo North Senatorial District, has disclosed that he was brutalised and detained by the Department of State Services (DSS) during his tenure as the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) from 1999 to 2007.
Oshiomhole made this revelation during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday.
His comments were prompted by the recent brutalization of NLC President Joe Ajaero in Imo State, a situation he criticized.
Oshiomole, who criticized the decision of organized labour to embark on a nationwide strike in response to the incident, said he had similar experience as the NLC president.
He said, “I had a similar experience… I was on my way to Delta State, and I went to the airport. The then director of SSS ordered that I should be arrested and stopped from traveling because we had given an ultimatum to the then Federal Government headed by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
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“They dragged me on the tarmac, and I had my cuts all over the place. They forcefully prevented me from flying and took me back to the DSS director general’s office—then Col. [Kayode] Are.
“He offered to take me to their own hospital, and I said, ‘No, I can’t even trust a government that has inflicted this kind of wound on me to treat me. They might as well poison my blood.’ I said I wasn’t going to do that.”
Oshiomhole added that he ended up in detention for at least 48 hours after being “taken away” and expressed his determination to continue the struggle for justice.
Meanwhile, Oshiomhole said Ajaero has mixed politics with issues of organized labour.
According to him, Ajaero’s assault in Imo State is not a good reason for a nationwide strike.