Cold war rocks Labour Party over leadership tussle

…as NLC warns factional Chairman not to visit party secretariat

By Ukpono Ukpong

The Preaident, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, has ordered its members to occupy the residential homes of some opponents of the suspended National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure, if they launch any other attempt to take over the national secretariat of the party.

Ajaero gave the order yesterday when he led the leadership of the congress to the National Secretariat of the party in Abuja.

He also directed all workers in the country to arrest anybody suspected to be plotting to destroy the Labour Party and bring them to the authorities.

It would be recalled that a Federal Capital Territory High Court, Abuja, had ordered Abure to stop parading himself as the national chairman of the party a week after a ward in the Edo State chapter of the party suspended him over alleged anti-party activities.

Shortly after the court order, the party’s national vice chairman, Lamido Bashir Apapa, who had been accused of being sponsored by the opposition parties, took over the party in acting capacity.

But in another twist, a High Court in Benin also gave an order, restraining anybody from removing the embattled party chairman from his office.

Speaking angrily during the visit, Ajaero, who was accompanied by the NLC General-Secretary, Emmanuel Ugboaja, TUC leaders and other labour leaders as well as hundreds of workers, said as trustees of the party, no one has power to occupy any position in the party without their consent.

“Today, we say enough is enough! Never again will any human being enter here, under any guise, under any order. Even if we lose our leadership, we have to meet as trustees of this Labour party to decide the next line of action.

“For anybody to illegally declare himself either as chairman, secretary or whatever, we urge all workers anywhere in the country, where you see such people, arrest them and bring them to us. The hour has come.

“The Bible says, ‘From the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of God suffereth violence, and violence taketh by force. Now, we have come to take our party, we have come to establish our party.

“As the fastest growing party, you can see that envy and jealousy is creeping in. The people that are pioneering this, to sabotage us, let’s announce here that we know you are fathers. If you continue this way, we will go after your fathers.

“We leave it here until we finish our private discussion. Let it be known to the whole world that the NLC fathered LP and we will not abandon our child.”

…We will convert impostors’ homes to LP offices if – Labour leaders*

Ajaero, who described Apapa and his team as “rodents that will be fumigated with insecticides”, said nobody can scuttle the ideal and ideologies of the party including ongoing cases at tribunal.

According to him, “For some time now, we’ve not been visiting our house. We decided to visit our house this afternoon after getting some information that there are some rodents trying to move into our house.

“We have come with some insecticides to fumigate the house against any rodent that is illegally trying to enter our property. That’s why we are here.

“Incidentally, we didn’t see any rodents, but we will comb around and see whether there are any. The Labour Party is a child of circumstances.

“It was formed when we lost almost all confidence in existing political parties, and we felt that the Labour Party would be an ideal political party that would represent our ideological persuasion. That was why it was formed.

“For anybody or group of people, to think that they will sabotage or derail our ideological movement, we will resist it with the last drop of our blood.

“This was formed by the NLC and the TUC, it is our party. Nobody can come from the “blues” and declare himself as the Chairman or the Secretary of our party without our consent.

“If such people attempt to come here next time, all their property, their houses, we will convert it to labour party offices – their residential houses, we will go and occupy it wherever it is located and they will know that all the property they have was given to them by the Labour.”

Meanwhile, the National Publicity Secretary of the Party, Dr. Arabambi Abayomi has while addressing journalists in Abuja yesterday said that NLC must not be seen to be involved in illegality, bulglary, unlawful entry and political bringandage.

He earned that it is sad that NLC could seen openly aiding and abating people to disobey court orders.

“We want to state clearly that the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and its affiliate are not an appendage to any individual or group but an association formed and anchored on the idea to protect the interest of the Nigerian people.

“While it too early in the day to say otherwise about the leadership of NLC because there is a subsisting court order restraining Abure and 3 others which we believe they are not aware of, we want to remind them that they must out of good conscience, protect the sanctity of the union at all cost and try as much to avoid action that will cost damage to the reputation of the union.

“They were aware that an FCT High court today, 17th of April 2023 sustained the restraining order against Julius Abure and three others until determination of the motion on notice but went ahead to publicly fraternise with Abure who had earlier forced his way into the secretariat against a court order.

“It is pertinent at this juncture to remind Mr Joe Ajero that he is not above the law and should note that he was once a bitter looser some years ago to the immediate past NLC president when he Joe Ajero formed the United Labour Congress (ULC) thus Labour party is not an avenue to display such childish rascality he is known for and we can not be threatened by him.

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“We are all Nigerians and he should be ashamed that Mr Sam Amadi withdrew from yesterday Imo state illegal congress organize by the restrained former Executive because the winner dollarise the election, thus where is Joe Ajero integrity by asking for our fathers and our houses. Is it in order to attacked and assassinate our families?

“We would make sure we pursue this case to a logical conclusion on ABURE and 3 others Forgery, Perjury and impersonation and fraudulent activities.

“The security agencies can now see the kind of negative characters that want to take over power in Nigeria.

“The United States of America, The British Government and other European allies will be notified of this criminal infraction deliberately orchestrated by ABURE under the Cover of NLC Leadership who is now hobnobbing with criminal element in LP that not only the police has found them guilty but also the court confirmed they forge their documents.”

Finally he further dared the NLC Leadership to carry out their threat of invading the court on the next adjourned date at least to show that he has power over and above the constitution.