(Bloomberg) -- Nigeria’s Department of State Security has released Joe Ajaero, president of the Nigerian Labour Congress, the union said Tuesday in a statement posted on X.
The union, the largest in the West African nation, did not detail when or where he was released. Ajaero was detained Monday at the airport in Abuja, the nation’s capital, while he was on his way to attend a Trade Union Congress conference in London, the NLC had said.
The DSS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The NLC had threatened possible strike action if Ajaero wasn’t freed, calling his detention an act of intimidation aimed at “silencing dissent and stifling the labor movement’s voice.”
Ajaero has been interviewed by police in recent weeks in connection with several criminal allegations and is set to talk with them again at the end of the month.
He also spoke out last week criticizing a 45% increase in the cost of fuel, calling the move a betrayal of a minimum wage agreement reached in July with President Bola Tinubu. The NLC repeated its call for the price hike to be reversed.
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