The State Security Service (SSS) has said it was not involved in the security raid on the headquarters of the Nigeria Labour Congress on Wednesday night.
The raid, as announced by the NLC, whose spokesperson was carried out by “heavily armed” security operatives including police operatives.
Some of the security operatives were plain-clothed, with the NLC suggesting they could have been SSS operatives.
In a short statement posted on X, the SSS said it did not “carry out any operation at the NLC office in Abuja.”
The police have yet to speak on the raid as of the time of this report.
Meanwhile, NLC General Secretary, Emmanuel Ugboaja, has insisted that its offices were the SSS operatives’ targets.
“The 10th floor, where both the President and I have our offices, was targeted. The security officer was taken from there and forced to open an office on the 2nd floor that belongs to a tenant,” Mr Ugboaja said in a phone interview on Thursday.
Mr Ugboaja said the raid happened shortly after a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the congress on Wednesday.
He raised concerns about the SSS’s intentions, questioning the focus on the 10th floor.
“If they claim they were after a specific person, does the entire 10th floor belong to one individual? The security guard they held at gunpoint, who does he work for?” he asked.
When asked whether the NLC’s offices were specifically targeted, Mr Ugboaja responded, “How would I know? They came at night after we had left.”
The secretary said the raid has left NLC staff apprehensive about returning to work.
Earlier on Wednesday night, the NLC, in a statement, claimed that “heavily armed” security personnel, including police officers and plain-clothed operatives suspected to be from the SSS, raided their offices.
The union accused security forces of conducting a late-night raid on its headquarters, allegedly in search of “seditious materials” linked to the #EndBadGovernance protests, according to the statement by its spokesperson, Benson Upah.