The former commissioner for information in Lagos State and the Agbaakin of Ikorodu Kingdom, Otunba Ayodele Elesho, has described the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) as a disaster due to the failure of the body to play a dominant role in the #EndSARS protest.
The revered and vocal community leader made the daring statement while speaking at the Constituency Stakeholders meeting organised by Hon. SOB Agunbiade on Thursday, October 28, 2020, at the Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu Permanent Campus.
Otunba Elesho, who was a former State Chairman and member of the National Executive Committee of NLC, faulted the executive committee of the Labour body for not playing a significant role in the #EndSARS protest organised by the youths across the country against the brutality and harassment by the men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, popularly known as SARS.
“NLC is a disaster. All the media here should report that l said that. The body was nowhere to be found during the protest. They were supposed to be at the forefront of the protest but unfortunately, they failed in that regard”.
He said that the body, during his own time, was always at the forefront of many struggles and that he and other exco members were in and out of prisons on several occasions but yet, remained committed to every cause that was about the people.
“I was a former State Chairman of NLC. I was also a member of the National body of NLC. During our own time, we participated in many struggles and protests. We were arrested and were moving from one prison to the other but we thank God that we are alive today”.
Otunba Elesho, while commending the youths for organizing the peaceful protest to demand police reform and good governance in the country, advised them to always take time out to review and refine tune their strategies whenever they are embarking on protest to prevent people with ulterior motives from hijacking the protest as it was the case during the #EndSARS protest when hoodlums took advantage of the situation to unleash terror in various parts of the State, destroying both private and public properties.
Otunba Elesho, who represented Oba Kabir Shotobi, the Ayangbure of Ikorodu, at the event, appealed to the State Government to further gives attention to bad roads in Ikorodu division while he also urged that those currently under construction should be completed in good time.
He said that the State government cannot attend to all roads that need attention in the division and as a result, urged the councils to play a complementing role by grading bad roads in their respective domains to make them passable for motorists and other road users.
He also aligned with Chief Monzor Olowosago, Publisher, Oriwu Sun, on the need to address the perennial traffic bottlenecks at the Ikorodu Garage Roundabout and the nuisance being constituted by street traders, commercial Okada riders and tricycle operators who are obstructing free flow of traffic in that axis.
Earlier, Chief Olowosago, while making contribution at the event, lamented the current traffic challenges at the Ikorodu garage roundabout and attributed the situation to the absence of the police officers whom he said have refused to go to their various duty post due to the #EndSARS protest organised to criticise their operations.
While acknowledging that most of the requests by the people at the event to Hon. Agunbiade are not under his purview as a lawmaker, he appealed to him to use his influence in the Assembly to attend to some of the requests, particularly the Ikorodu garage roundabout which he said requires urgent attention.