Sources: Ajaero arrested for shunning police invitation over Air Peace’s petition

Joe Ajaero, president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), was arrested on Monday following his failure to honour police invitation over a petition by Air Peace airlines, security sources have told TheCable.

Ajaero also failed to honour an invitation by the Department of State Services (DSS) over an alleged case of extortion, according to the sources.

The details of the Air Peace petition and alleged extortion were not revealed to TheCable.

Also, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), which handles Nigeria’s security issues involving foreigners, invited Ajaero over the case of Andrew Wynne, a Briton accused of sponsoring terrorism in Nigeria — an allegation Wynne denies.

Ajaero also shunned the invitation.

The NLC president previously said he was not going to honour police invitation over his relationship with Wynne but he later changed his mind.

The police quizzed and released him the same day but later invited him for further questioning but he refused to turn up, the sources said.

In August, the police had invited Ajaero for questioning over “a case of criminal conspiracy, terrorism financing, treasonable felony, subversion, and cybercrime”.

The force said an arrest warrant would be issued on Ajaero if he did not honour the invitation.

Police had raided the NLC building in the Central Business District of Abuja.

The NLC said operatives who raided the building “claimed that they were looking for seditious materials used for the #EndBadGovernance protests”.

Subsequently, Kayode Egbetokun, inspector-general of police (IGP), said one of the masterminds of the Sudan conflict was traced to the NLC headquarters.

The IGP added that police detectives traced the foreigner to a bookshop within the Labour House, and that operatives did not raid the entire secretariat.

Wynne has since been declared wanted.