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A report from the Federal University Teaching Hospital, Owerri, Imo State capital, said medical experts are currently pulling out all the stops to salvage the right eye of the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero.
Ajaero sustained several bruises on his face after he came under attack while leading a protest in Imo on Wednesday, November 1, 2023.
According to a police account, the labour leader was whisked away from the scene of the protest after some incensed workers pounced on him in a move to rebuff the union from shutting down their offices.
To save him from the mob attack, Ajaero was taken into protective custody, the Imo State Police Command claimed.
However, appearing in a now-viral video, the NLC president recounted his harrowing experience while in police custody, where he claimed that officers assaulted him.
Sitting between two men in a vehicle while he was being taken to Federal Medical Centre, the labour leader said he didn't have any phone on him but had a relative in the employ of FUTHO who he hoped would be of assistance.
In the meantime, leaders of organised labour have condemned the maltreatment of Ajaero in Imo, describing the incident as a heinous act of attempted murder.
NLC's Head of Information and Publicity, Benson Upah, stressed that the development was an act of abduction that degenerated into attempted murder.
“Contact has been made with Congress President, Joe Ajaero, this evening around 15:30 hours at the Police Hospital in Owerri from where he was taken to Federal Medical Centre, Owerri where he is receiving medical attention.
“Thoroughly brutalised, his (Ajeoro’s) right eye at the time of contact was completely shut,” Upah said.