Leaders of the Socialist Labour, Dr. James Uanhoro, and Dr. Izielen Agbon, on Tuesday, called on the Department of State Service (DSS) to release a former Chairman of the Trade Union Congress [TUC] in Oyo State, Andrew Emelieze.

In a statement made available to The Guardian, Uanhoro and Agbon said Andrew Emeziele, National Coordinator of the Federal Workers Forum, is being held illegally by the DSS in Ibadan for organising protests, which is his Constitutional right.

The activists said, ”This continues a worrying trend that anyone attempting to organise protests is ‘invited’ by the Department of State Services (DSS), with similar harassment suffered by journalists who are critical of the President or governors. We need action from the trade unions to defend our Constitutional rights.

”Andrew Emeziele is the former Chair of the Trades Union Council (TUC) in Oyo State. For several years, Andrew has successfully built the Federal Workers Forum as a pressure group within the Federal workers’ trade unions. It now has thousands of supporters across the country. The Federal Workers Forum has been calling for further robust action over the trade unions’ demands. Most recently, they called for protests in Abuja on 1st July. These were over demands that Federal workers should be paid their various allowances and pay awards that have formally been agreed with the Federal Government.

”Andrew visited the DSS offices in Ibadan on 30th June on the eve of the above protest. He was held overnight and was released the following evening. Andrew accepted the DSS invitation to return to their offices on 3rd July. The DSS went to court secretly late on the 4th July and obtained a court order for Andrew to be detained for two weeks at the Agodi Prison, Oyo State. Contrary to this order, Andrew is still being detained by the DSS and is being denied visiting rights. As usual, the DSS is attempting to use the Cybercrime Act, 2015, to stop protests and criticism of governments.”

The activists condemned the harassment of the trade union leader, saying, ”We call on the trade union movement to send solidarity messages and to take action over this attack on our democratic rights. An attack on one is an attack on us all! We all need to argue for a more active response by the trade union movement to ensure that the minimum wage and other agreements are fully implemented.”