Picketing of LP secretariat, a show of shame- Abure

Mr. Julius Abure, the National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), has faulted Wednesday’s picketing of the National Secretariat of the party by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), saying it is a show of shame.

This is contained in a statement by Mr. Obiora Ifoh, the LP National Publicity Secretary, on Thursday in Abuja.

Abure also described the action as a show of rascality, an abuse of office, and an abuse of the law of the land.

“They besieged the office, broke the fence, destroyed the gates, unlawfully took possession of the Secretariat, and destroyed properties worth millions of naira.

“Properties stolen include monies made for the payment of salaries and other official purposes. This is unfortunate.

“I must state today that the leadership of the NLC under Joe Ajaero is on the verge of destroying the successes we have recorded in the 2023 general election.

“I had expected that, as a responsible trade union centre and a responsible labour leader, he should have teamed up with the Labour Party to see how we can team up together to make the country better,” he said.

He added, "Unfortunately, and ironically too, the NLC is the one that is in the war against the LP.

“I must state clearly that Ajaero, as NLC President, has not been able to organise a successful strike action.

“Not even a single protest or even picketing a government establishment in order to bring the government to accede to the numerous requests of workers.

“As we speak, there are unfair labour practices meted out to workers by several organisations in the country. I have not seen Joe Ajaero go to such organisations to picket them.”

The LP National Chairman added that NLC had been claiming ownership of LP, which was not true.

He said that the party was not owned by the NLC.

“We are not the employers of NLC, and they don’t have the legitimate reason to picket our office.

“We have no trade union dispute with NLC; there is no notice issued to us that we have a trade union dispute with NLC. This is clearly an abuse of office and an abuse of the laws of the land.

“Let me also state here that the propaganda they have been carrying around that we are planning a secret convention is totally false.

“The NEC met in April 2023 in Asaba and granted the permission that the convention must hold in one year. We started planning for the convention since then,” he said.

Abure added,We communicated with INEC as requested by the law. We have also informed all the stakeholders, including the NLC. I have discussed the issue with Ajaero on several occasions.

“The NLC, on its own, wrote to INEC on several occasions about the need to hold the convention.

“We are surprised that the same NLC is the one that is asking that convention should not hold again.

“He has ulterior motives and we will not allow him to hijack the party.”