1. The Lagos State Government strongly denies the absolutely false and misleading reports in several newspapers today that the chairman of the Council of Industrial Unions (COIU) in the Lagos State Public Service, Mr Ayodele Akele, was arrested yesterday evening. This story is nothing but a figment of the imagination of one Mr Segun Sango who purportedly issued a press release to this effect on the platform of the self-styled Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM).
2. The State Government has confirmed from all relevant security agencies in the state that at no time was any attempt made whatsoever to arrest Mr Akele. The labour leader is not in the custody of any security agency in the state as he is enjoying his democratically guaranteed freedom.

 

3. Security reports available to government indicate that the false report of Akele’s purported arrest was deliberated plan to whip up sentiment in support of the worker’s strike. As part of the plan, the government has gathered authoritatively that Mr Akele has gone underground to create the impression that he has been arrested by the government.
4. That Mr Akele and his sponsors have had to resort to this desperate, wicked and unpatriotic strategy predicated on falsehood shows clearly that their action is unpopular and is fast losing the support of majority of workers. They have therefore cooked up this lie of his arrest to enable them mislead workers into prolonging a strike action they are obviously fed up with.

 

5. It is now clear that Mr Akele and his sponsors in the so-called Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) have become agents of destabilisation in the hands of some unpatriotic elements who want to destroy our nascent democratic system. What is happening is part of a grand design to cause widespread violence and instability in the state.
6. We call on members of the public to refuse to be hoodwinked or misled by these perpetrators of mischief and falsehood. The Lagos State Government remains irrevocably committed to the values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. It is indeed Mr Akele who demonstrated a cynical disregard for the rule of law when he called workers out on strike in contemptuous defiance of a court injunction.

Commissioner for Information and Strategy

Lagos State, Nigeria.