By Uche Onyeali
Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has called on the federal government to launch an investigation into the death of a labour activist and Secretary of the Joint Action Front, JAF, Abiodun Aremu, who died on Sunday after being struck by a hit-and-run driver in Ogun State.
Reacting to the labour leader’s demise in a statement yesterday, President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Joe Ajaero, described Aremu’s death as a tragic and painful loss to the civil society movement.
Ajaero said Aremu, popularly called “Aremson,” was a committed revolutionary who devoted his life to defending the rights of workers and the oppressed.
“Comrade Aremu was no ordinary man; he was a titan of the class struggle and an organic intellectual of the working people.
“He dedicated his life to the emancipation of the working class and the building of a just and egalitarian society,” Ajaero said.
The NLC president said he played a leading role in uniting the labour movement with the broader civil society through platforms like Labour and Civil Society Coalition, LASCO, and JAF.
He added that the late activist understood the need for unity among workers and the masses to resist the “exploitative capitalist system.”
“Aremu was a true workers general who never wavered, never compromised and never retreated.”
Ajaero noted that he also established the Amilcar Cabral Institute of Ideological Studies to train young activists and promote socialist consciousness.
Through the institute, Ajaero said, the late activist inspired a generation of revolutionaries committed to international solidarity, including struggles for Western Sahara and Cuba.
The NLC president also called for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death, describing it as suspicious.
“The circumstances of his death, a so-called ‘hit-and-run’, reek of a sinister pattern, reminiscent of the suspicious death of another valiant comrade, Patrick Naagbanton.
“The NLC demands an immediate, transparent and thorough investigation by the federal and state governments into this heinous act.
“We cannot, and will not, accept this as a mere accident. The Nigerian state must dispel the foul odour surrounding his death by apprehending the perpetrator and revealing the full truth. The working class deserves answers,” he added.
Ajaero urged supporters to honour Aremu’s memory by recommitting to the cause of social justice and the liberation of the working class.
He confirmed that a burial event would be held on October 23 in Ifo, Ogun State.
