(Bloomberg) -- Nigeria’s government warned the country’s labor unions not to go ahead with a strike on Tuesday called in response to a police assault on one of their leaders.

“What the strike notice issued Monday night after official hours suggests is it’s designed for a sinister and hidden agenda to cause undue hardship and cause civil disturbance in our country,” a presidential spokesman said in a statement late Monday. “This strike action is illegal, immoral, unjustifiable and irresponsible.”

In a notice posted on its X account late Monday, the Nigeria Labour Congress, a national umbrella body for workers, directed its members across the country to withdraw their services starting at midnight. 

The union is protesting an assault by police on its president, Joe Ajaero, during a protest march over unpaid salaries on Nov. 1 in Imo state in Nigeria’s southeastern region. The NLC want the police officers who they allege carried out the assault to be arrested and prosecuted.

The government said an “error of judgment” by Ajaero had provoked the assault and that the matter was being investigated.

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