•Declares labour, cohorts lack powers to sack legitimate leadership
Chuks Okocha in Abuja
The national leadership of Labour Party (LP), yesterday, said it had proof that National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, had entered into a pact with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to destabilise the party and by extension, push Ajaero’s 2027 political aspiration.
The party dismissed the caretaker committee set up by NLC to take over the party, stating that NLC does not have the constitutional mandate to do so.
LP said NLC was a body not recognised by the constitution of the party or any known laws for that matter, and could not arrogate to itself powers it did not possess.
In a statement by National Publicity Secretary of LP, Obiora Ifoh, the party said NLC claimed to have sacked the Comrade Julius Abure- led National Working Committee of LP, “after holding an illegal assembly of a handful of aggrieved former members of the party and some social media tigers who are not known to be card carrying members of our party.”
According to Ifoh, “Ordinarily, we would have ignored the illegal act but for the need to set the records straight and to prevent genuine democracy loving Nigerians and supporters of our great party from being misled, we offer a few clarifications.
“The Political Commission of the NLC is a front for Comrade Joe Ajaero, which he has empowered for the purpose of his political ambition come 2027.
“The group is unknown to the Labour Party, as such lacks powers to convene a meeting of ‘stakeholders’ to deliberate let alone take any decision which will have a binding effect on a legally constituted party leadership.
“The group has been mandated by Ajaero to ensure that crisis in Labour Party festers ahead of the 2027 by presenting itself as a rallying ground for dissident former members of our party who recently lost the leadership battle in the courts.”
LP added, “We are also not unmindful of the political pact the leadership of the NLC has gone into with the current All Progressives Congress-led federal government to destabilise the opposition.
“This explains why in quick succession all their plots to hijack the party leadership has failed. First, it was by illegal picketing of the party, when that failed, it attempted to introduce and inaugurate a non-existing Board of Trustees, that also failed.
“Again, the attempted plot to take over the party using a stakeholders meeting comprising former members, social media tigers and non-members, will again fail like a pack of card.
“If only the drama boys who gathered on Monday as stakeholders could open the Labour Party constitution, which guides the conducts of the party, probably they would have not wasted their time being part of the scantly attended jamboree.
“Since you cannot build something on nothing, the gathering itself lacks legitimacy and as such decisions reached remain an enterprise in futility. They are null, void and of no effect.
“It is on record that the Labour Party recently had a very successful national convention in Nnewi, Anambra State, where party officials were elected and given the sacred mandate to build on the successes recorded by our party in the 2023 general elections.”
Ifoh explained that there was no disputing the fact that the Abure NWC had led the party into a national brand, adding, “With the support of members and Nigerians across the length and breadth of this great nation, the party now boasts a number of senators, members of the Federal House of Representatives as well as State Assemblies. Need we talk about the pace setting Governor of Abia State, Alex Otti?”
