Nigerian security agents arrest top labour leader: union

Nigeria's domestic security agency on Monday arrested one of the country's top labour leaders, his union said, days after he called on the government to reverse a fuel price hike.

Labour unions in June shut down the national grid for a day, stalled domestic flights and closed government offices to protest over Nigeria's high costs of living. 

Joe Ajaero, who leads the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), was arrested at Abuja airport on his way to the United Kingdom, NLC spokesman Benson Upah said.

NLC is an umbrella of dozens of unions with tens of thousands of members, from civil servants and teachers to oil sector workers and transport employees.

"His detention is a brazen act of intimidation and completely unjustified under the laws of our nation," Upah said in a statement.

NLC said the Department of State Security (DSS), an agency handling domestic security threats, arrested Ajaero days after he lashed out at the government for hiking prices of petrol and after he said union leaders would meet over strike action.

He had also accused the government of "muzzling lawful dissent".

Africa's most populous nation is going though its toughest cost of living crisis in years, with inflation at more than 30 percent and the naira currency sharply devalued.

- Cost of living crisis -

Since he came to power last year, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ended a costly fuel subsidy and freed up the naira in reforms analysts say will revive the economy and attract investors.

But in the short term, Nigerians have seen fuel prices soar and inflation hit a three-decade high.

Last week the state oil company NNPCL increased petrol prices by around 40 percent, after admitting it was massively in debt.

NLC had been critical of Tinubu's policies for months and had gone on strike at least twice this year though with limited success.

On Monday, the rights group Socio-Economic Rights And Accountability Project (SERAP), which has filed lawsuits against the government, said DSS agents also occupied its office in Abuja, "asking to see our directors".

The actions drew criticism from rights group Amnesty International, which said Tinubu's government is "going too far" in "repressive efforts to gag dissenting voices".

The presidency did not immediately respond to calls for comment. A DSS source, however, said Ajaero was arrested for failing to honour an invitation for questioning on "allegations against him by some of his colleague-officers in the NLC".

The Nigeria Police Force invited Ajaero last month for questioning twice, initially saying he was suspected of "criminal conspiracy, terrorism financing, treasonable felony, subversion, and cybercrime". 

It later said in a letter that the union leader was wanted for questioning for "criminal intimidation".

A former Lagos governor, Tinubu has promised a period of "renewed hope" for Nigeria, a major oil producer on the continent and one of Africa's largest economies.