The Police sealed the National Secretariat of the Union in order to prevent a breakdown in law and order, according to Comrade Innocent Bola Audu, National President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN).
A number of crises have plagued the union in recent weeks as a result of allegations of fraud amounting to N10 billion against some of its executives. As a result, members have protested outside the union's national secretariat.
As a result of the protests, the police had sealed the National Secretariat of the Union, which was situated in the Yaba neighbourhood.
However, the National President of the Union has provided an explanation of the National Secretariat's sealing.
The national secretariat was shut by the police, according to Audu, in a statement made accessible to journalists on Saturday. This was done to prevent a breakdown in law and order.
He continued by saying that the national secretariat had been shut down indefinitely due to threats and disorderly conduct by several members, including Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, a former union secretary.
Audu continued, "The Police sealed the national secretariat as a result of the conduct of Lawal and some of the previous union officials who were accused of the N10b scam."
He added that the national secretariat was sealed so as to douse tension and avoid bloodshed.
Audu insisted that the Commissioner of Police in Lagos State was also directed by the Inspector General of Police to provide security in the Secretariat to ensure no breakdown of law and order.
In the statement, he said: “The truth remains that the Secretariat was sealed by his threats and unruly behaviour before the Police Commissioner to avoid break down of law and order and guarantee peace in the environment.
“The fact of the matter is that Alade Bashir Lawal and his partners were reported to the Police for suspected fraud of monumental proportion and mismanagement of the union’s finance and resources.
“On the basis of the complaint, the Inspector General of Police directed the Force CID to investigate the criminal allegations and the petition by the union’s President, Comrade Innocent Bola-Audu.
“The Commissioner of Police Lagos was also directed by the IGP to provide security in the Secretariat to ensure no breakdown of law and order, and in order to prevent the suspects in the case from tampering with evidence materials that may be needed in police investigations.
“To douse tension and avoid bloodshed, the Area Commander of Area “C” Police, Surulere, Lagos, ACP Adedeji Adefolarin, upon arriving at the scene and noticing the violent resistance Lawal, the prime suspect in the matter under criminal investigation by the FCID had put at the Secretariat, asked Lawal and his partners to join him and Comrade Innocent Bola-Audu, the Union’s president to also come along with his team and everybody was asked to accompany the Area Commander to the Police Commissioner’s office.
“At the meeting in Commissioner’s office, Lawal became uncontrollable as he did not allow the Union’s president to state his own side of the story. Even the Commissioner’s intervention that the police is neutral and will ensure law and order is maintained did not assuage Lawal.
“He rudely told the Commissioner of Police that as a Unionist “he is not bound by any law”.
“And the Commissioner in apparent response to Lawal’s conduct of lawlessness ordered that the Secretariat be shut and everyone, except tenants in the complex, be escorted out to maintain peace, law and order in the environment.
It was the workers whose contributions he had frittered away and paid himself N140,000,000.00 as entitlements that Lawal referred to as hoodlums in his press release.
“Members of the Union from Lagos and other neighbouring states were on hand with placards in solidarity with the union president. Recall that in compliance with the order of the IGP, the Commissioner of police had directed the Area Commander of ‘Area C’ police command in Surulere to provide police security at the Secretariat.
“The Area Commander, ACP Adedeji Adefolarin deployed police patrol vehicles to the secretariat to maintain Law and order. On arrival, it was observed that Lawal had ordered the access gate to be locked and no one should be allowed into the complex.
“Even the presence of the Area Commander, an Assistant Commissioner of Police in uniform leading the team did not matter to Lawal who insisted that the Police should not be allowed in. It took the timely intervention of the D.P.O. of Sabo Division before the suspect (Lawal) allowed the Area Commander into the complex.
“Our members were at the Secretariat with placards in solidarity with the elected president and mandate holder of the union, Comrade Innocent Bola-Audu. They are not hoodlums; these were Senior Civil Servants from Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States. Lawal is being hunted by the ghost of his evil manipulations and activities in the Union against the members and his employers.”