The Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights demands the immediate and unconditional release of protesters
Chinedu Bosah, CDWR national publicity secretary
The Nigerian Police and the Bola Tinubu-led regime are hell-bent on sustaining the incarceration of #EndBadGovernace protesters and activists. It is three weeks, and counting, that Michael Adaramoye (Michael Lenin), Sodiq Mosiu and hundreds more have been illegally and unjustly detained by the Nigerian Police without trial. The Nigerian Police have ensured that Michael Adaramoye and others are denied access to legal representation, and family members, as they are kept incommunicado. The detainees are also held in deprivation of basic human needs like food, healthcare and essential housing materials like beds etc. Due to the inhuman and deplorable conditions the detainees are subjected to, some have fallen ill and been denied medical treatment; the Tinubu government will be held responsible if any of the detainees die in detention.
In furtherance of the incarceration, the Nigerian Police on 22 August clandestinely procured a remand order at the Federal High Court, Abuja, to extend the unjust detention of the protesters by 60 days, without their legal representatives present. The judiciary is used to enable the dictatorship of the Tinubu-led regime. We condemn this undemocratic and underhand tactics of the government.
In Nigeria, the corrupt capitalist ruling elite loots and walks freely while innocent activists, trade unionists, socialists, and protesters are unlawfully victimised and attacked.
We of the Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights reiterate our condemnation of the illegal and unjust incarceration of Michael Adaramoye, Mosiu Sodiq, Eleojo Opaluwa and many others. We demand their immediate and unconditional release.
The following is a model motion which trade union branches can pass
This union branch notes:
- The peaceful 10-day protest that started on 1 August for the #EndBadGovernance campaign against hunger and hardship in Nigeria has been met by brutal oppression by the Nigerian state with 13 people killed
- Organisers and activists were abducted from their beds and arrested by the Nigerian state at 2am Monday 12 August and have been held without charge for around two weeks. This includes Eleojo Opaluwa, a member of the National Union of Electricity Employees and a vice-chairman of Kogi State Nigeria Labour Congress, Adaramoye Michael Lenin, Mosiu Sodiq, and Eleojo Opaluwa
- No fewer than 1,400 peaceful protesters are in prison, barely getting one meal a day and have been denied their right to meet lawyers
- The Nigerian president Bola Tinubu has a record of smashing unions. As governor of Lagos he sacked the union leader Ayodele Akele and many workers, over their struggle for payment of the minimum wage.
- The Nigerian Labour Congress trade union body had its offices raided by the state on Wednesday 7 August
- Joe Ajaero, the President of the NLC, was hospitalised in a Tinubu regime-backed attack last year and is now facing an investigation for charges of “terrorism financing, cybercrime, subversion, criminal conspiracy, and treasonable felony.”
- In response, several unions in Nigeria are preparing to strike. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and individual unions internationally have supported the movement through letters to Nigerian ambassadors and other action
This union branch believes:
- The Tinubu regime’s ever-increasing and dangerous tyranny poses a serious risk of a step back in rights, similar to the period of military rule where activists were frequently arrested, abducted, detained, tortured and killed
- There needs to be a strong response from the international labour movement to support the workers’ movement and oppose these attacks with demands for:
- The end of harassment and attacks on the trade union movement and the President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero
- The end of state attacks on activists and labour leaders, as well as an immediate release of Michael Adaramoye Lenin, Angel Innocent, Mosiu Sodiq, Eleojo Opaluwa and all others currently in detention over the #EndBadGovernance protests
This union branch agrees to
- Show support for Nigerians and their unions as they prepare to oppose the attacks on the working class, the labour movement and their unions through protests and strikes as well as local action
- Send a letter to the Nigerian Embassy calling for release without charge of all arrested, and an end to the attacks on the labour movement and the wider working class
- Send a donation to The Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR) (crowdfunder.co.uk/p/cdwr)
- Push our trade union to take similar action to the branch
