Senator Adams Oshiomhole has revealed that when he served as President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), men of the Department of State Services (DSS) assaulted and detained him.
The former governor of Edo state was the NLC president between 1999 and 2007 during the administration of former president, Olusegun Obasanjo.
Oshiomhole condemned the recent brutalisation of the President of the labour union, Joe Ajaero in Imo State, and in the same vein opposed the decision of NLC and TUC to embark on a nationwide strike in response to the incident.
During a recent interview on Channels TV, he shared his experience of how he was stopped from traveling and was dragged on the road. He said he ended being in detention for at least 48 hours after being “taken away”.
He said, “I had a similar experience… I was on my way to Delta State, and I went to the airport. The then director of SSS ordered that I should be arrested and stopped from traveling because we had given an ultimatum to the then Federal Government headed by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“They dragged me on the tarmac, and I had my cuts all over the place. They forcefully prevented me from flying and took me back to the DSS director general’s office — then Col. [Kayode] Are.
“He offered to take me to their own hospital, and I said, ‘No, I can’t even trust a government that has inflicted this kind of wound on me to treat me. They might as well poison my blood.’ I said I wasn’t going to do that.”
