Convention: LP kicks as NLC pickets party’s nat’l secretariat

• We’ll take legal action – Party’s spokesman

By Abbas Jimoh, Idowu Isamotu (Abuja) & Abdullateef Aliyu (Lagos)

The crisis rocking the Labour Party (LP) worsened on Wednesday as members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) picketed the national headquarters of the party in Abuja.

Led by the acting General-Secretary of the NLC, Ismail Bello, and the acting Chairman of the Political Commission of the NLC, Theophilus Ndubuaku, the union members demanded the immediate resignation of Julius Abure as the national chairman of the party on the ground that he was not properly elected.

Ndubuaku also claimed that the planned convention of the party under the leadership of Abure is an illegal one.

The NLC alleged that the convention was intended to re-elect Abure as the sole administrator of the LP, with concerns about secrecy surrounding the event. Union members chanted songs against Abure, accusing him of embezzling funds.

However, Nigeria Police Force operatives from Utako Division, Abuja, prevented the NLC members from locking up the LP headquarters.

In response, the LP leadership condemned the “unlawful break and entry” by some NLC members as a criminal act and a misplacement of priorities.

The National Publicity Secretary of LP Obiora Ifoh, who said this in a statement, alleged that the ambitions of the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, have been the push for the Congress’ political commission’s latest action. He wondered why the NLC would want to claim ownership of the party.

“Ajaero’s continuous claim that the NLC owns the Labour Party is not in any way supported by either the Electoral Act or the Constitution. For his information, a political party is owned by those who are card-carrying or financial members of the party. The constitution also provides that no organisation can own any other organisation. The NLC as an organisation can therefore not claim ownership of the Labour Party,” Ifoh said.

He said the party leadership would review the actions of the NLC with its legal department for further action.

Meanwhile, the National Consultative Front (NCFront), led by Prof. Pat Utomi, has called for a ceasefire in the crisis bedevilling the party while also urging the party’s NWC to postpone the proposed national convention.

It warned that the successes recorded by the party in the last election should not be eroded, “as history will not spare all those found culpable as tools.”

Director of Administration at the NCFront, Promise Adewusi, said in a statement that “there is no gainsaying that the Labour Party has emerged, too suddenly, as the beautiful bride of Nigerian politics, a major success, which also has its drawbacks, part of which is the desire of its adversaries to see it demobilized and its enviable strides halted.”

The NCFront therefore added its voice to the call of “all well-meaning stakeholders and members of the Labour Party to call for the postponement of the proposed National Convention to allow for more consultations and the cooling of nerves, as this is certainly not a time for personality contests or altercations among the various caucuses and forces in the party but for reasoned, strategic consultations that will ensure inclusivity in the affairs of the Labour Party for future strength and triumph.”