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Nigerian Union Leaders Home

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12 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 60/1998

Nigerian oilworkers' leader Frank Kokori arrived back in Lagos yesterday to a noisy welcome from crowds of supporters and the media. He immediately called for an overhaul of Nigerian politics - and of the Nigerian unions.

Kokori, who is the General Secretary of the Nigerian oil and gas workers' union NUPENG, had been detained without trial by the regime of General Abacha since 1994. In that year, a strike by Nigerian oil workers and others was put down by the military regime and a wave of repression against the oil unions and their leaders was unleashed.

Milton Dabibi, General Secretary of Nigerian oil and gas workers' union PENGASSAN, was released from prison on Monday night. He had been held without trial since January 1996. He is now resting with his family at an undisclosed location and is expected in Port Harcourt tomorrow. Sources close to Dabibi said that he would be needing medical care. His conditions of detention are understood to have been particularly harsh.

Both unions are affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions, which led a sustained worldwide campaign for Dabibi's and Kokori's release. When Abacha died last week, the ICEM, its affiliates and other union internationals immediately asked his successor as Head of State, Major-General Abdulsalam Abubakar, to order Dabibi's and Kokori's release. They are among the first nine detainees to be freed. About a hundred political prisoners are still being held in Nigerian jails.



"WHAT HAS BECOME OF ORGANISED LABOUR?" - KOKORI

Observers say Kokori looked and sounded "frail" on his arrival at Lagos airport yesterday. He subsequently told union officers that he is "OK", but they note that the conditions in which he was detained have "taken a toll on him."

But there was certainly nothing frail about Kokori's speech to the crowds at the airport.

Thanking all those who supported him during his detention, Kokori roundly condemned the Abacha regime and said that he had never really expected to be freed while Abacha remained in power. In fact, "I never wanted to be released under General Abacha, despite the pains I went through in prison."

Turning to the military's annulment of the 1993 presidential elections in Nigeria, Kokori called on Major-General Abubakar to "redress the injustice that was done." The presumed winner of the elections, Moshood Abiola, is among those still being detained without trial.

But some of Kokori's strongest remarks yesterday were directed at the Nigerian trade unions - and more particularly the national union federation, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

"What has become of the organised labour movement that we left behind?" Kokori asked his cheering supporters. The NLC had betrayed the 1994 strike, he insisted. "At the peak" of the 1994 crisis, Kokori recalled, he had spoken to the NLC's leader at that time, Pascal Bafyau: "I said, 'Let us be on the right side of history.' Bafyau replied, 'I don't care what side of history I'm on.' " Not long afterwards, Kokori was arrested by the State Security.



"LIFT RESTRICTIONS" - ICEM

ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe has congratulated Major-General Abubakar on his prompt action in releasing Dabibi and Kokori, and has thanked him for the particular attention given to these cases. At the same time, Thorpe asked the Head of State to lift the remaining restrictions on PENGASSAN and NUPENG.

In particular, Thorpe said, legal recognition of Dabibi and Kokori as the unions' elected General Secretaries should be restored and the "sole administrators" imposed by the Abacha regime should now be withdrawn from the unions' offices. The ban on the check-off of union dues should be lifted. The unions' bank accounts should be unfrozen. Any oil workers sacked for their part in the 1994 strike should be reinstated. And all decrees that restrict Nigerian unions' right to affiliate freely at the international level should be rescinded.



"RESTORE DEMOCRACY" - WASHINGTON DEMO

In Washington yesterday, hundreds of demonstrators outside the Nigerian embassy called for a return to full democracy in Nigeria and the release of all political detainees there. The demonstrators applauded the release of Dabibi, Kokori and seven other detainees.

The demonstration was co-sponsored by the ICEM, the US national labour federation AFL-CIO, Amnesty International, Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, Public Services International, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, TransAfrica, International Human Rights Law Group, Free Nigeria Movement, Nadeco (USA), Nigerian Democratic Movement, and United Democratic Front of Nigeria.

"America's unions stand united with the people of Nigeria," said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka. "We urge the release of all labour and political prisoners and call for democratic elections in Nigeria. We will continue to lend our support to our Nigerian brothers and sisters until democracy is restored."

Trumka was joined in addressing the demonstration by Cordelia Kokori, Frank's daughter; Calvin Moore, Vice President of the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW); Cecil Roberts, President of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA); Steve Rickard, Director of the Washington Office of Amnesty International; and Steve Mills, Director of the Human Rights and Environment Campaign at the Sierra Club. The OCAW and the UMWA are ICEM affiliates.

Today, a government spokesman in Nigeria promised that more detainees will be released "in batches" over the coming weeks. He did not, however, say how many, when and whether Abiola will be among them.