Jalingo -The Police in Jalingo has prevented officials of the Taraba Council of the NLC from holding its delegates conference, an official of the union has said.

Mr Simon Shinpu, who is also the state secretary of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), disclosed this to newsmen in Jalingo.

According to him, police went to the NUT House, venue of the conference, in three trucks and threw tear gas to chase the labour leaders out of the conference hall.

He said that some labour leaders were awaiting delegates from the 16 local government areas when the incident happened.

Shinpu said that the Police later barricaded the main entrance to the NUT House with an armoured tank and a truck to prevent the labour leaders from gaining access to the venue of the
conference.

He said that more than 100 armed mobile policemen were involved in the operation.

In his reaction, the  state NLC chairman, Mr Jonah Kataps, criticised the action of the police  as “gross abuse of power”.
 
He said that the Police had no reason to cancel the delegates conference as there was no disagreement between the two chairmanship candidates.