Mr Abdullahi Yayaha, Chairman of the FCT chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has commended the FCT Police Command for the it handled the just suspended protest against subsidy removal.
Yahaya gave the commendation on Tuesday when he led a delegation of the chapter’s executive on a courtesy visit to the FCT Commissioner of Police, Mr Michael Zuokumor.
The NLC chairman said it was necessary to commend the command because no casualty was recorded in the FCT during protest unlike in some other states where protesters were allegedly shot by the police.
He said that the police should not always be castigated, but be commended whenever they do certain things well in order to encourage them.
Yahaya noted that protest was one of the ways people could protest policies that were against them in a democratic setting and urged the command to exhibit similar conduct in future
“In Nigeria, we always castigate the police each time one or two things were not done well. Of course, when they do some other things well, we also need to commend them.
“We are here to commend the officers and men of the command for the way they handle the fuel hike protest here in Abuja.
“In some states (during the protest), we have this issue of one or two persons fell by the police bullet
“But here in Abuja in spite all the mobilisation, they (Police) allowed free movement of the protesters,” he said.
Responding, Zuokumor gave the assurance that the command would always strive to protect lives and property, but advised against violent protests.
The commissioner said that protest was not the only way of solving problems and urged labour to come up with alternative ideas.
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“Protest does not really solve problems. The issue is that we should come up with ideas and there are other ways of solving problem other than protesting,” he said.
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