The crisis that recently enveloped the Labour Party following the purported expulsion of its former chairman Abdulkadir Abdulsalam at the October 3, 2017 convention has shown no sign of abating as Abdulsalam allegedly continues to insist that he remains in office as the National Chairm‎an of the party. According to him, he is the only person recognised with that designation by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
‎At its recent convention, Abdulsalam was relieved of his office while investigation for alleged gross abuse of office was instituted against him. This action was taken on the basis of complaints by top members of the party’s NWC led by Chief Calistus Okafor, Deputy National Chairman (Sou‎th).
Affirming the decision of the party at a recent meeting with journalists, Barrister Ebere Ifendu, National Publicity Secretary of the party said, the NWC unanimously endorsed Dr. Mike Omotosho as the new National Chairman of the Labour Party. “It is therefore laughable that anyone will go around parading himself as occupying that office. That is wishful thinking, particularly when his action is supposedly based on recognition by INEC. The truth is that INEC does not chose officers of a party. The commission is obliged to witness the convention of a party and this it did when we elected our new chairman. We will not join issues with anyone who chooses to delude himself. I am not aware of any such recognition by INEC. We had a successful convention on October 3 and INEC witnessed it.â€
Since the exit of its long-serving national chairman, Dan Nwanyanwu, the Labour Party has been crises ridden, forcing the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and the Trade Union Congress, TUC which jointly formed the party in 2002 to make moves to retrieve its registration documents and refocus the party to follow the social democracy principles for which it was founded.
At the time of this report, the INEC website carried the name of Alh. Abdukadir Abdulsalam (Baraden Paiko) as National Chairman of the Labour Party.
