Imo State government has described the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, as the real dictator instigating the state workers against Governor Hope Uzodimma.
In a response to Ajaero’s recent press statement where he tagged Uzodimma as a “budding dictator” and that the leaders of the 22 industrial unions of the NLC in Imo who organised the Labour Day celebration on May 1, were stooges of the state government, the commissioner for information and strategy, Declan Emelumba, said Ajaero’s attitude was being driven by his “vaunting selfish political and clannish ambition to impose those he wants to manipulate as slaves working in his manor.”
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The government regretted that Ajaero had abandoned his huge responsibility as the national president of NLC to assume the position of defacto chairman of Imo NLC, noting that those who said he lacks the capacity to play at the national level of the NLC before now must have reasoned from experience.
Emelumba said, “It is to the glory of God that, contrary to the vain wishes of the president of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, Imo workers and pensioners converged at Ndubuisi Kanu Square, Owerri, on May 1st, 2023, for yet another memorable May Day celebration. The smiles and clear expressions of joy of the thousands of workers who turned up for the historic event clearly showed that they were neither coerced nor intimidated to be present.
“They were simply there on their own accord. Yet, this is the impression Mr Joe Ajaero wants to create by his press release on April 30, 2023. For the records, this could not be further from the truth. For instance, some of the senior citizens and pensioners who prayed for Governor Hope Uzodimma couldn’t have been compelled to do so because they are no longer in service.
“Yet, Ajaero, in his reckless press statements, claimed that the leaders of the 22 industrial unions of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) in the state who organised the Labour Day celebration, were stooges of the state government. This is simply laughable because these union leaders were there long before Ajaero emerged the president of NLC. It is an open secret that the grouse Ajaero has with these leaders is that they refused to be recruited into his hate force to amplify his rabid hatred for the governor and the state government, fired purely by his selfish political and clannish interests,” Emelumba said.