The three-day nationwide warning strike called by the Nigeria Labour Congress recorded a casualty on its first day on Wednesday in Benin, Edo State, as the state chairman of the National Union of Air Transport Employees, Godwin Ehikioya, was shot by a police orderly at the local airport while attempting to enforce compliance.



Ehikioya was said to have angered the police officer by trying to stop his principal, a female judge, who arrived from Asaba, Delta State, to board a flight to Lagos.



The union members who were at the Benin Airport to monitor progress of the strike frowned at the arrival of an Arik flight from Lagos.



The unidentified female judge was said to have arrived at the Benin airport to board the same Arik plane to Lagos, but the unionists reportedly blocked her vehicle from moving near the airport entrance.



The police escort, whose name could not be ascertained, was said to have brought out his weapon and shot Ehikioya on the left arm.



The police detail reportedly fired several shots into the air to fend off attack, and in the process, the judge’s car found its way onto the tarmac for the judicial officer to board her flight.



The workers were said to have taken over the runway, insisting that the plane would not takeoff.



A high ranking police officer however prevailed on the rampaging workers to leave the tarmac



Some workers who spoke to our correspondent blamed their counterparts in Lagos “for allowing the flight to come to Benin in the first place.”



Chairman of Edo State council of the NLC, Kaduna Eboigbodin, threatened that workers in the state would embark on a separate strike beginning Monday, to protest the shooting of their colleague.



Meanwhile, passengers who made it to the airport for flights to other parts of the country were stranded as no other flights took off from Benin.



Wife of the victim, Rachael, expressed shock over the event, demanding that her husband be treated.



She said, “I am surprised and I hope my husband will be given good treatment,” she said.



Efforts to contact spokesperson for the state police command, Peter Ogboi was unsuccessful but a senior police officer who pleaded anonymity confirmed the incident, saying, “I must confess that this issue we don’t want it on the pages of newspapers because we have not been able to identify the police officer involved here.”


http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201011114115440

Strike is not a must for everybody. People must be convinced to participate and not forced. Running to the Tarmac to stop a plane from fluing is equally crazy and against security protocols. I personally don’t blame the policeman for preventing his boss from being mobeed.

wales:

Strike is not a must for everybody. People must be convinced to participate and not forced. Running to the Tarmac to stop a plane from fluing is equally crazy and against security protocols. I personally don’t blame the policeman for preventing his boss from being mobeed.

Shooting the man in the arm falls under 'excessive use of force', and the policeman should have been prosecuted in any decent society.
Please try very hard to travel out of Nigeria to see how life is in a more sane society. I'm afraid the brutality of this jungle is rubbing off on you. Imagine you praising a policeman for shooting a picketing unionist!

Yet another tale of poor efficiency on the part of our policemen.


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texazzpete:

Shooting the man in the arm falls under 'excessive use of force', and the policeman should have been prosecuted in any decent society.
Please try very hard to travel out of Nigeria to see how life is in a more sane society. I'm afraid the brutality of this jungle is rubbing off on you. Imagine you praising a policeman for shooting a picketing unionist!

nice one.

texazzpete:

Shooting the man in the arm falls under 'excessive use of force', and the policeman should have been prosecuted in any decent society.
Please try very hard to travel out of Nigeria to see how life is in a more sane society. I'm afraid the brutality of this jungle is rubbing off on you. Imagine you praising a policeman for shooting a picketing unionist!

Its unfortunate, but 'excessive use of force'' is the only language Nigerians understand and respect.

What offense did the Judge commit for her to have been treated in such a manner? Is she the Federal government? In the 'more sane society' you described above, would striking workers exhibit such behaviors?

The workers were said to have taken over the runway, insisting that the plane would not takeoff.

Art201,you are madman,and a frustrated fool.

Mai Suya:

Its unfortunate, but 'excessive use of force'' is the only language Nigerians understand and respect.

What offense did the Judge commit for her to have been treated in such a manner? Is she the Federal government? In the 'more sane society' you described above, would striking workers exhibit such behaviors?

I beg to disagree. The majority of Nigerians need councelling to negate the traumatic effects of years of brutal military rule and a winner takes all society; they surely do not need more violence.
An area boy needs more hugs than he needs slaps, think about it.

The NLC have become a single-issue pressure group! What happened to fighting for causes other than Pay increase (minimum wage) and fuel price?

They would be wiser mobilizing the people against bad leadership, curruption and neglect of the people. Thats the only way I'll ever take them seriously!!