A former President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba, on Thursday, said the Labour Party was formed by the NLC, as a platform for members of the union to exercise and defend their rights.

Wabba spoke amid the supremacy tussle between the NLC and the Labour Party.

On Wednesday, NLC members, acting on the directive of its leadership, led by NLC President, Joe Ajaero, picketed LP secretariats across the country.

The move was to press home their demand for the immediate resignation of Abure over his alleged ‘financial rascality’ and contempt of the NLC President, Ajaero.

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The demonstrators were spotted laying siege to the LP national headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday chanting solidarity songs and calling for the head of the party leadership.

They were however prevented from gaining access to the party secretariat by security operatives posted to the area to maintain order.

Also on Thursday, protesting NLC members descended on the LP secretariat in Benin, Edo State.

The Edo State NLC Vice Chairman, Suleiman Abubakar, accused Abure of running the Labour Party like his personal business.

The Edo State NLC Vice Chairman, Suleiman Abubakar, accused Abure of running the Labour Party like his personal business.

Abubakar said that the Labour Party belonged to the NLC and the labour union should, therefore, be carried along in every decision being made by the party leadership.

He said, “We were directed across the 36 states of the federation to picket the Labour Party offices. We ought to have done the picketing on Wednesday as directed by the political commission of NLC, but we were unable to mobilise our members.

“The reason for the picketing is that the National Chairman, Julius Abure, is running the party like his personal property and engaging in financial rascality. Everybody should be carried along. He has announced the national convention and wants to handpick and impose a candidate on us. This is not the time to handpick and impose on anybody.

“The way forward is for him to go to the national body and resolve his difference with other officials. He must learn to play by the rules of the game. We are not being sponsored, nobody is sponsoring us,” he said.

Wading in on Thursday, Wabba, who spoke on Channels TV, said the LP was owned by the NLC.

Wabba said, “First and foremost, the Labour Party was formed by the NLC, in realisation of a clear objective in the Constitution of the NLC. Under Article 3 and item 1, the major objective of the NLC is to promote, defend and advance the economic, political, and social rights and well-being of Nigerian workers and pensioners.

“We own the Labour Party; it was formed under the leadership of Pascal Bafiau, as Party for Social Democracy. Under Adams, organs decided to change the name to the Labour Party, and the first Chairman is S.O.Z. Ejiofor, who later handed over to Dan Anyanwu.

“So, the essence of forming the party is to make sure that workers, pensioners, farmers, can be able to have a platform to exercise their rights, which is enshrined in Section 40 of the Constitution. The party was formed by NLC, registered by NLC. It’s like you built a house, you got a C-of-O, then you rented the apartment, so you must have an interest in how the property is managed.”

But the embattled National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure, on Thursday, disagreed, insisting that Labour Party did not belong to the NLC.

Abure said, “Over the past few years, the NLC has been claiming ownership of Labour Party. l must state clearly that NLC is not the owner of the Labour Party. The party is not owned by the NLC. The law is very clear that you cannot picket an organisation where you do not have your workers. We are not the employers of the NLC and they don’t have the legitimate reason to picket our office. We have no trade union dispute with the NLC. This is clearly an abuse of office and abuse of the laws of the land.

“Let me also state here that the propaganda they have been carrying around that we are planning a secret convention is totally false. The NEC met April 2023 in Asaba and granted the permission that the convention must hold in one year. We started planning the convention since then. We communicated to INEC as requested by the law. We have also informed all the stakeholders, including the NLC. I have discussed the issue with Ajaero on several occasions. The NLC on their own has written to INEC on several occasions on the need to hold the convention. So, we are surprised that the same NLC is the one that is asking that convention should not hold again. He (Ajaero) has ulterior motives and we will not allow him to hijack the party.”

Abure, while condemning Wednesday’s attack on the party’s secretariats across the country, alleged that the protesters vandalised the Abuja office and destroyed property worth millions.

Abure said, “What we saw was a show of shame, a show of rascality, an abuse of office and an abuse of the law of the land.

“The NLC under Joe Ajaero is not above the law and the law precludes Ajaero and the leadership of NLC from taking the law into their own hands. They besieged the office, broke the fence, destroyed the gates, unlawfully took possession of the secretariat and destroyed properties worth millions of naira. Properties were stolen including monies made for the payment of salaries and other official purposes. This is unfortunate. It is becoming unbecoming.

“I must state today that the leadership of NLC under Joe Ajaero is on the part of destroying the successes we have recorded in the 2023 general elections. I had expected that as a responsible trade union centre, a responsible labour leader, he should have teamed up with Labour Party to see how we could team up together to make the country better. Unfortunately and ironically too, the NLC is the one that is on the part of the war against Labour Party.” (The PUNCH)

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