DSS Releases NLC President Joe Ajaero

The Department of State Services (DSS) yielded to mounting pressure and released Joe Ajaero, the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), from its custody late Monday evening.

Benson Upah, the spokesperson for the NLC, confirmed this development to reporters late Monday night.

He noted that Ajaero was arrested on Monday morning at Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja while he was preparing to board a flight to the United Kingdom.

The NLC’s president’s release came just hours before the union’s ultimatum to the federal government and the secret police was set to expire.

The NLC had earlier lamented the ongoing challenges faced by Nigerian workers, maintaining that such acts of intimidation and aggression must come to an end.

Subsequently, in a terse statement posted on its X handle on Tuesday, the labour body said its president who was held at the office of the National Security Adviser had been released.

“Breaking news… Comrade Joe Ajaero released from DSS detention. The struggle continues, we can’t be silenced,” the statement reads.

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Earlier, the labour organization called for the immediate and unconditional release of Ajaero by the Department of State Services (DSS).

In a statement released following an emergency meeting held in Abuja, the National Administrative Council (NAC) of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) insisted that the labour leader must be freed by “midnight today.”