NLC set to take over LP offices nationwide

The crisis rocking the Labour Party (LP) is assuming a worrisome dimension as the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, on Tuesday, wrote union leaders to begin the process of mobilising their members in readiness to invade and take over the 36 offices and national secretariat of the Labour Party in Abuja.

Ajaero gave the directive in an internal memo made available to newsmen in Abuja.

The NLC president’s directive comes in the wake of Friday’s judgment of the Supreme Court which vacated earlier judgment of the lower courts.

The move was reminiscent of the March 21, 2024 invasion where aggrieved unionists broke into LP headquarters and other offices, an act that the National Working Committee said was a deliberate action to steal their sensitive documents and money.

But Ajaero insisted that they could not fold their hands and watch Abure and his team defy the Supreme Court’s pronouncement.

He said, “Just as we warned him about a year ago that Nigerian workers and genuine members of the Labour Party will always collect what belongs to them no matter how long a mischief lasts. By this communication, we urge every worker in Nigeria, all genuine members of the Labour Party and all lovers of democracy, to be on standby to once again peacefully repossess all offices of the Labour Party nationwide.

“The leadership of the NLC Political Commission and other concerned Labour Party stakeholders will issue necessary directives to this effect. We are also putting all the security agencies, especially the Nigeria Police Force and the State Security Service, on notice that they have a constitutional duty to enable and enforce the judgement of the Supreme Court.

We expect their cooperation as we pursue the rule of law. Any action to the contrary will present our dear country as a banana republic. Nigerian workers and people, especially genuine members of the Labour Party, will not sit back and watch unscrupulous elements desecrate Nigeria’s laws and the well-founded judgement of the Supreme Court.”

Continuing, Ajaero expressed shock that despite the judgment, Abure and his alleged co-travellers could still be parading themselves as national officers of the party.

The Labour leader bemoaned that the arrogance of the LP leadership and disregard for the rule of law was what made them invade their nationwide offices and secretariat last year.

To resolve the leadership vacuum in the party, the NLC president said the surviving institutional members of the LP National Executive Committee would appoint an interim leadership to conduct an inclusive National Convention in line with the provisions of the LP Constitution and the consent judgment.

This was even as he demanded the removal of Abure and his loyalists’ names from the portal of the Independent National Electoral Commission.

“Finally, we call on the Independent National Electoral Commission which had always pleaded alignment with the pronouncement of the court of law in the leadership issues in the Labour Party to give full effect to the conclusive judgment of the Supreme Court by removing every insignia of Mr Julius Abure and his National Working Committee from its portals,” the statement added.

Efforts to get the National Publicity Secretary of LP, Obiora Ifoh, were unsuccessful.

However, the National Secretary of the party, Alhaji Umar Farouk said that they are preparing to release a statement in response to Ajaero’s threat.

“We will soon issue a statement on it. The threat is nothing new. We are used to their rascality,” he said