The investigation ordered by the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, into the beating and alleged assault on the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, in Owerri on November 1, is most instructive. It should be thorough to identify who actually was responsible and to sanction the persons accordingly. Being the number one person representing all workers in the country, the ill-treatment of Ajaero amounts to desecration of workers and ought not to be allowed to go unpunished. The maltreatment did not appear as a minor encounter, as the labour leader emerged from it brutalised and disheveled, with a swollen face and a black eye.
  
According to reports, the labour leader had gone on invitation of Imo State Council of workers to lead a protest over alleged anti-labour policies of the Hope Uzodimma administration. According to NLC, it had written to all security agencies, apprising them of the upcoming protest. But as workers arrived at the Imo Council Secretariat of the NLC, venue of the protest around 7.00 a.m., reports had it that they were rounded up by political thugs and assaulted. Ajaero claimed he was arrested by the Police and handed to some political thugs and was subsequently beaten up, blindfolded, dragged on the floor and taken to an unknown destination where he was subjected to more dehumanising torture, like a common criminal. His phones and other personal effects were taken off him. He was later referred to the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri for ophthalmic investigation, scan for head/brain injury and other checks.
 
The Police Command in Imo denied the arrest, claiming the NLC president was only taken into protective custody to save him from a mob. But that assault is an affront on the rule of law and the Constitution of the Federal Republic. It violates the right to peaceful assembly and manifests a descent into an era of chaos and anarchy, in a dispensation that is supposed to be democratic and civil. It is condemnable. If Ajaero and workers violate any law(s), they should be taken to the court of law, not to be addressed in such a crude and callous manner.
 
In a statement issued by the Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, the police stated that the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has ordered investigations into the circumstances surrounding the alleged assault on Ajaero. “Consequently, he has directed the Deputy Inspector General in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Department to take over the matter with the primary objective of ascertaining the true facts surrounding the incident and to address any ambiguities that may exist as the Police has been inundated with different versions of the incident, making investigations imperative to clear the conflicting accounts. The Nigeria Police Force understands the importance of transparency and accountability in maintaining public trust. The IGP, therefore, assures the public, most especially the leadership of the organised labour, that a thorough and unbiased inquiry will be conducted to provide clarifications.”   The investigation should also be done quickly before the trails get cold. Citizens have a right to peaceful assembly in a democratic system and the best that law enforcement can do is to ensure that such assemblies of protests are civil and peaceful, not to deny the exercise of such fundamental right.
  
In conducting its investigation, the police may do well to consider the role, if any, of alleged partisanship in the saga. Although Governor Hope Uzodimma expressed regret over the incident because it happened in his state and at a time he was not present in the state, he nevertheless believed that Ajaero could have conducted the NLC’s protest more decently, moreover as the governor was not confronted with the allegations of non-payment of salary of Imo workers. Indeed, he emphasised that his government was not owing workers in the state. He wondered if the NLC president was not tacitly engaging in electioneering campaigns under the camouflage of workers unionism. That allegation is certainly weighty because workers under the umbrella of NLC do belong to various political parties of their choice; and where the leadership is partisan, friction becomes a possibility. But even that cannot justify the assault of Ajaero.
  
Therefore, opinion is naturally divided on how far the NLC can support the activities of political parties. NLC floated the Labour Party (LP), and some hold the opinion that a workers’ body should remain politically neutral since it belongs to all workers who may be adherents of political persuasions other than the ideology of labour. It is alleged that Ajaero belongs to the LP and is using the labour movement to pursue the agenda of the party. Ajaero has denied belonging to any political party, but that has not vitiated the sentiment that workers’ body is unfriendly with the government because NLC and LP are one and the same.
  
Elsewhere, labour parties belong to workers and are floated to advance the interests of workers. In those climes, other members of the civil society may share in Labour’s quest to form government and implement programmes that are workers-friendly. Some workers may also favour other political parties and their policies. What is of utmost importance is that voting is strictly a personal choice. Nobody and no worker should be forced to vote against their conscience and that is key.
  
Going forward, the NLC must manage the affairs of workers distinctively from the political agenda of their party. To avoid conflict of interests, let the Secretariat of LP clearly take on matters that are strictly political, while the NLC concerns itself with labour matters. As democracy evolves, a clear separation is desirable without constraining the rights of workers to float and own a party while individual workers decide their political preferences.
 
On law enforcement, President Ahmed Tinubu should look closely at the reality of the country’s internal security to align it with his Renewed Hope vision. Security deployment should not be at the behest of certain political office holders to the detriment of the opposition. Security should be available to all citizens irrespective of political affiliation; and the police should not be seen to be partisan or subservient to the governor.