Strike: Trade Union Leaders Cautioned against Violence
The Committee for the Defence of Human Right Rights (CDHR), Osun State Chapter, has warned trade union workers to desist from violence.
The right group said this while reacting to a violence caused by the factions of Trade Union Congress in Osun over differences of opinion on a three-day strike.
During the crisis, journalists, especially the cameraman of Channels Television, Mr. OyegbenileOloyede were pounced and attacked with weapons by some thugs brought inside a TUC-branded vehicle.
Also, a female member of the National Youth Service Corps reportedly sustained several injuries on her body.
CDHR in a press release by its Chairman, Comrade AkinkunmiAsifat, described the attitude as an absurd idea, saying that it was unbecoming of a union leader to use thugs to effect an order.
Asifat also called on the security agencies to ensure that all those who are culpable of the “unprovoked” attacks on the journalists were arrested and prosecuted.
He explained that sweeping such case under the carpet would degrade the image of the security agencies.
Asifat said, “The attack on journalist by thugs hired by a factional chairman of the TUC, who is trying to enforce his three-day warning strike order, is highly condemnable. Osun has been freed from thuggery and violence since 2010, and the state government and security agents must not allow anybody to introduce violence and thuggery into the state.
“All those who are involved in the attacks on the journalists must be prosecuted. Journalists are not just workers; they are the eyes and eyes of the public. They are members of the fourth estate of the realm who are constitutionally empowered to perform their duties. Injustice to one is injustice to all.
“An attack on any journalist is an attack on all; and a threat to democracy. If journalists could be attacked freely by thugs, who then is safe from the criminal act of the hoodlums?It is even going a dangerous trend seeing a union leader hiring thugs for civil action.”
