The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joseph Ajaero has charged all members of the Labour Union to find, arrest and present the Apapa faction of the Labour Party leadership to the union leadership for further action.

Ajaero said this at the National Secretariat of the Labour Party on Monday where he led members of the national executives of the Labour Union on a courtesy call to the Party headquarters.

He said the Labour Party was borne out of frustration over the conduct of the activities of Nigerian politicians by the Labour Union and the Union maintains the trusteeship, hence it has to follow laid down procedure before any change of leadership.

Ajaero emphasized that only the Congress of the party has the power to approve a new leadership and until then, the party would continue to recognize the Abure-led leadership of the Labour Party.

“For some time now, we have not been visiting our house and this afternoon, we decided to visit after getting some information that there are some rodents trying to move into our house, we have come up with some insecticide to fumigate the house from any rodents that are illegally trying to enter our property.

“That is why we are here, incidentally, we didn’t see any rodents but we will comb and see whether there are any.

“The LP is a child of circumstances. It began when we lost almost all confidence in the existing political parties and we felt that the LP will be the ideal political party that will represent our ideological persuasions.

“In other words, that was why the LP was formed; for anybody or group that thinks that they can sabotage or derail our ideological move, we will resist them with the last drop of our blood.

“This party was formed by the NLC and TUC. This is our party. Nobody can come from the blues and declare himself as the chairman or secretary of our party without our consent. It is not done,: he said.

He then charged the members of the Union all over the country to protect the Union and purge the Union of shady characters.

“Such people, if they attempt to come here next time, all their property, all their houses, their residential houses, we will occupy them wherever it is located. Then they will know that all that they have was given to them by Labour.

“Today, we say enough is enough. Never again will any human being enter here under any guise, under any order. Even if we lose our leadership, we have to meet as trustees of this party to decide the next line of action.

“For anybody to illegally declare himself either as chairman, secretary or anything, we urge all workers anywhere in the country, where you see such people, arrest them and bring them to us. The hour has come. The Bible says, “From the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent taketh by it by force.

“Now we have come to take our party, we have come to establish our party. As the fastest-growing party, you can see that envy and jealousy are crippling in. The people that are pioneering this to sabotage us let’s announce here that we know your fathers.

“If you continue this way, we will go after your fathers. We leave it here until we finish our private discussion. Let it be known to the whole world that the NLC fathered LP and we will not abandon our child,” he added.

The embattled chairman of the party, Barr. Julius Abure in his remark before the closed-door session said that no amount of intimidation or deceit would stop his executives from pursuing and reclaiming the party’s mandate which he said Nigerians trooped out under the sun to give to the Labour Party at the presidential elections.

According to him, “Let me appreciate the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for this solidarity visit. I want to state here clearly that I remain committed to the struggle for a new Nigeria. I want to say that no man can stop an idea whose time has come.

“The time has come for Nigerians to take back their country. A new Nigeria I believe is possible and no amount of harassment or intimidation. No amount of falsehoods and no amount of falsified stories will derail us from our pursuit.

“We refuse to be distracted. We will continue to pursue our court case. We are in court because they stole our mandate so we will remain in court till that mandate is recovered. We will not rest on our oars until we reposition Nigeria for greatness,” he stated.

Labour Party has been engulfed in a leadership crisis post-February 25 presidential elections that have created factions with more than one candidate emerging as a gubernatorial candidate in Imo State, ahead of the off-season election.

The Party has two factions of its claiming leadership of the party, The Faction led by Abure and has the endorsement of the Labour Union and the Bashiru Apapa faction which said it was acting in response to a court order which has restrained, Barrister Abure and three others from parading themselves as leaders of the party. (Nigerian Tribune)