Cops release union leader

2004-10-09 21:37

Abuja - A leading Nigerian opposition figure told AFP on Saturday that he had been released by the secret police after being detained and pressured to drop his support for an impending general strike.

Femi Aborisade, general secretary of the left-wing National Conscience Party (NCP), was taken into custody by the State Security Service after responding to an invitation to present himself in Abuja for questioning.

He was released later in the day but brought no news of Adams Oshiomhole, president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), who was arrested in a separate incident earlier on Saturday and has not been heard from since.

Both men are high-profile opponents of President Olusegun Obasanjo's economic reform programme and have called on their supporters to stay at home from Monday in support of a general strike against rising fuel prices.

"They arrested me and expressed concern over the impending strike," Aborisade told AFP in Lagos on his return from Abuja after his release.

"I reiterated my position that the strike would go ahead," he added.

Aborisade said he had met with the director general of the SSS and had been released after discussing the strike and fuel prices. "When I was with them I was not able to use my time, so I consider it an arrest," he said.

Earlier, SSS officers snatched Oshiomhole from Abuja airport as he prepared to return to Lagos. The agency later said it had released him, but the NLC insisted he was still missing and expressed concerns about his safety.

Aborisade said he had not seen Oshiomhole while in custody. "They have secret detention centres," he said. "Until I see Adams Oshiomhole, I will not believe the government."

- AFP