President General of the National Association of Plants Operators (NAPO), Harold Benstowe has been arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS), which has also handed him over to the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).

Kristina Reports checks reveal that he was arrested by the DSS on Tuesday, October 11, 2022, when he responded to an invitation by the intelligence gathering agency at its State Headquarters in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

Benstowe confirmed his arrest alongside other officials of NAPO to Kristina Reports in a telephone interview on the night of Tuesday, October 11, 2022 before further efforts to reach him became futile.

According to him, he and other officials of NAPO were invited to a meeting with the DSS aimed at resolving the labour issue with Daewoo Engineering and Construction Nigeria Limited (DECN) only for them to be arrested and handed over to the Sting Operation Squad of the Rivers State Police Command.

They were eventually detained at the Anti-Kidnapping Unit at Forces Avenue, Port Harcourt, a facility formerly used by the now defunct Swift Operations Squad (SOS) of the Rivers State Police Command, which is about 300 meters from the Deputy Governor’s Entrance to Government House, Port Harcourt.

Public Relations Officer of the Rivers State Police Command, Grace Iringe-Koko, a Superintendent of Police (SP) confirmed to Kristina Reports over the telephone that the NAPO President is in the custody of the State Police Command, but added that the Command is currently investigating the circumstances surrounding his arrest.

The NAPO President General told Kristina Reports that “we were invited by the DSS to a meeting aimed at resolving the labour issue between NAPO and Daewoo E&C, only for the DSS to start threatening me and other officials with me”.

“The Deputy Director, Operations of the DSS threatened to shoot me for running an illegal organisation. He said that if he had come to Bonny during the protest, he would have shot me himself and nothing would happen.”

“The man accused us of running an illegal organization and I told him that NAPO was not an illegal organization but an association duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission and currently undergoing registration as a trade union.”

Check by Kristina Reports revealed that the National Association of Plant Operators (NAPO) was registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) on Tuesday, February 21, 1989 with Registration Number RC 5245 and currently undergoing registration as a trade union in the Office of the Registrar of Trade Unions.

Efforts to reach the State Command of DSS proved abortive as no official of the service contacted was willing to speak on the matter. Furthermore, the DSS has no known official contact channels for media engagement.

Workers of Daewoo Engineering and Construction Nigeria Limited (DECN) at the NLNG Train 7 project site have been protesting under the aegis of NAPO, demanding that DECN management agree to their terms on the treatment of workers.

DECN, however, had, so far, refused to negotiate with NAPO saying it is not a registered trade union, a standpoint that has kept the issue lingering and disrupting operations at the Train 7 project site.

Whether the arrest of the NAPO officials, which follows closely with the shutting down of the Daewoo section of the Train 7 project site, was part of an alleged elaborate plan to cow the workers by breaking their ranks and forcing them back to work, is yet speculative.