NLC President Joe Ajaero recently faced the police over allegations of terrorism financing and other serious charges. Here’s a detailed account of what transpired during the interview and how Ajaero responded to the accusations.
In a recent development, the details of an interview between Joe Ajaero, President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), and the Nigerian police over Terrorism Financing have been unveiled. Ajaero was summoned for questioning in connection with an ongoing investigation related to one of the protesters from the EndBadGovernanceInNigeria movement.
The police called Joe Ajaero in for an interview to address allegations ranging from terrorism financing to cybercrime, subversion, criminal conspiracy, and treasonable felony. On Thursday, Ajaero, accompanied by Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Femi Falana and a coalition of lawyers, arrived at the police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) command in Guzape at approximately 10:20 a.m.
The session lasted less than two hours, after which Ajaero and his legal team departed the IRT premises. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a lawyer who was part of the legal entourage revealed that the police had little to substantiate their claims against Ajaero.
“The interaction was very amicable,” the lawyer said. “They simply wanted to know if Ajaero was aware of an individual under investigation—one of the protesters—who had a bookshop in Labour House about six years ago. The police sought to determine if this individual was a tenant of Labour House, but Ajaero’s office is on the 10th floor, while the person under investigation had a bookshop on the second floor.”
The legal team also took the opportunity to urge the police to release all detained protesters or charge them formally in court. “Ajaero had no involvement in the arrest, and we expressed our view that a simple phone call could have sufficed instead of making the situation appear more severe by summoning him formally,” the lawyer added.
