Chief Frank Kokori, the late veteran labour leader and one-time secretary general of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), has been described as one of the pillars in the fight against military dictatorship and the return of democratic rule in 1999.
Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, former Deputy President of the Senate, in a tribute to the former labour leader who passed on in the early hours of Thursday, said his indefatigable fighting spirit and sacrifice for the enthronement of constitutional governance are contributions that are indelible in the history of the advent of the Fourth Republic in Nigeria.
Chief Kokori, he said, deployed the instrument of labour activism to prop up the concerted fight to oust military dictatorship, especially the notorious regime of late General Sani Abacha.
Such was the effectiveness of his fight that the then military dictatorship had to use covert night time operations to arrest and detain him until the death of Abacha.
In a press release issued by his Media Adviser, Mr. Sunny Areh, Omo-Agege who is also the gubernatorial flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State, eulogized Kokori as an advocate for the people and for accountable governance.
“He deliberately put his life on the line when he mobilized workers in the oil industry to fight the Abacha repressive regime. They could not buy him over, they could not handle him and it required the use of undercover state operatives to render and detain him.
“In fact, it cannot be faulted to say that he is one of the main pillars of the birth of democratic rule in May 1999. Chief Kokori epitomised the virtues of the advocacy of father of labour activism in Nigeria, the late Pa Michael Imodu, who used the platform to fight irresponsible and dictatorial tendencies in government,” Omo-Agege stated.
He urged the successor generation of labour leaders to imbibe the inspiring and principled stand of their predecessors to be counted on the side of the people.
