A worker in a manufacturing company in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, has been confirmed dead.
The deceased whose identity is yet-to-be ascertained is a casual worker in the company.
It was learnt that the victim was shot dead on Monday when staff of the company embarked on a protest over the non-increment of their salaries.
According to media reports, the casual workers staged a protest over the company’s refusal to provide them with palliatives and failure to increase wages.
The casual staff claimed that the federal government had last year directed the organised private sector to give their workers palliatives, but the company failed to heed to the directive.
The development prompted the employees to take to the streets in anger.
It was also gathered that the management of the company invited security agents to stop the protest, a move which was resisted by the angry workers.
However, in the process, a staff was reportedly shot.
The worker, according to sources, died, while several others sustained various degree of injuries.
Public Relations Officer of the Oyo State Police Command, Adewale Osifeso, confirmed the incident yesterday.
He said some suspects have been arrested in connection with the incident.
He added that the commissioner of police had ordered that the case be taken up by the Homicide Department of the Criminal Investigation Department with the Deputy Commissioner of Police directly in charge of investigations.
Osifeso, in a statement, said “preliminary investigation reveals that the protest was premised on a widespread false information authored and peddled by some of the workers concerning the disbursement of palliatives to all private owned companies and firms in the country.
“Their grouse however was that they were being denied the welfare package. Sadly, the protest was hijacked by criminal elements who forced their way into the factory destroying vehicles and property worth millions of naira.
“One death was recorded during the violent protest. However, normalcy has since returned to the affected area with the immediate deployment of operational and tactical assets to prevent future reoccurrence.
“So far, 12 suspects have been arrested in connection with the violent protest. The commissioner has ordered that the entire case be taken up by the Homicide Department of the Criminal Investigation Department with the Deputy Commissioner of Police directly in charge of investigations.”
