Human rights lawyer and activist, Inibehe Effiong, has condemned the arrest of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) President, Joe Ajaero, by the Department of State Services (DSS).

Effiong on Monday lamented that the Tinubu-led administration had turned civil protests into a grievous offence of treason.

“The arrest of Comrade Joe Ajaero, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja on his way to London, where he’s billed to attend a trade union meeting by the State Security Service (SSS) is a continuation of the sinister efforts aimed at enthroning a climate of fear in the country.

“It is obvious that this regime is paranoid and is resorting to tyranny to cover its palpable and monumental failures. The arrest of Ajaero is condemnable and he should be released forthwith.”
“It is shameful that the pretentious and deceitful progressives are now destroying whatever is left of Nigeria’s democracy. It is now clear that this regime is determined to use arbitrary force to silence conscientious voices.”

“President Tinubu’s regime has made nonsense of the offence of treason. Nigerians are being arrested and prosecuted on trumped-up treason charges for protesting.”

“It is important for the international community to impose severe sanctions on agents of democratic destabilisation in Nigeria.”

“Rather than address the government’s failures, and the ravaging hunger in the country, this incompetent regime has resorted to pettiness and oppression.”

It would be recalled that the Department of State Security services arrested the Nigeria Labour Congress President while he was en route London for a Trade Union Congress meeting.
There have been repeated clamp down on dissenting voices by the Tinubu led administration, a development that has been condemned by different stakeholders across the country.