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From Idu Jude Abuja
Labor party Stakeholders in the Federal Capital Territory FCT have called on party faithful across the country to give unalloyed support to the Abdulwahed Omar-led Labour Party National Transition Committee (LP-NTC) to ensure the enthronement of true democracy.
The stakeholders which consists of six FCT area councils chairmanship aspirants, Monday paid a loyalty visit to the NTC leadership, with a stand that this would enable the party to achieve its widely desired transparent state congresses and all-inclusive national convention within the shortest feasible timeframe.
Spokesman to the forum, Dr. Kingsley Okoronkwo, while briefing Abdulwaheed Omar led committee, stated that the integrity, hard work, and sincerity of the NTC leadership was unassailable, highly commendable, and represented the solution for the desired rebirth and emancipation of the party from its tainted recent past under the defunct leadership of the Labour party.
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Dr. Okoronkwo stated, “Even though we are eight aspirants here, we represent over 20 others who cut across the six areas councils of the FCT.
” I assure you, Sirs, that there is virtually no other LP chairmanship aspirant with the defunct Julius Abure council of bondage, corruption, intimidation, and exploitation. The same fact applies to nearly all councillorship aspirants of the Labour Party in the FCT. Most of them are with us and the NTC.”
In his response, the Chairman of the Labour Party National Transition Committee, Comrade Omar Abdulwahed, told the forum: “I wish to use this opportunity to enjoin you to discountenance a lot of false narratives deliberately perpetuated and magnified against the NLC by Abure and his bygone exco. One of these is the false narrative that NLC is a labor union that has nothing to do with the Labour Party’s activities but is trying to meddle, muscle in, and take over the party from Abure. There is no lie and deceit more wicked and manipulative as this.”
“There are two major reasons why the past leadership is doing this. The first is to confuse and win cheap sympathy from uninformed Labour Party members and the general public as a cover for Abure’s criminal hold on the party. This is even after INEC ejected him from its headquarters and demonstrated that the commission would have no further dealings with him because all facts, administrative instruments, and court judgment before the commission have established that the last acceptable extension of Abure’s chairman of Labour Party ended on the 9th of June this year.”
Comrade Omar, a former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), who senior INEC insiders who spoke to us, says has been recognized by the commission as the acting National Chairman of Labour Party till a national convention produced a substantive NEC of the party, continued, “The second reason Abure’s expired exco peddle their lies against the NLC, which is a constitutional and court affirmed stakeholder of our party, is to buy themselves time and space to continue to scam and defraud huge monies and illegal fees from gullible party members throughout the country in the name of conducting state congresses and party primaries for local government elections, which are coming up in several states of the country.”
Omar enjoined the aspirants, “You must enlighten the public that the NLC is not a roadside meddler in the affairs of Labour Party but that in a long rested legal tango, the court delivered a consent judgment on 20th March 2018 by Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Abuja Federal High Court. The judgment declared that the Labour Party was founded, registered, and promoted by the NLC.
“For the avoidance of clash of its general labor union mandates and separation from its lawful inputs in the Labour Party, the NLC conducts its stakeholder role in the party through what we call the NLC Political Commission.”
Continuing, the NTC chairman said, “There are two questions to ask the erstwhile team of Abure each time they blackmail the NLC that it is a meddling trade union which has no rights in the affairs of our party. The first one is that if NLC had not founded and registered the Labour Party, would Abure and Co have a Labour Party political structure that they have operated all these years? Secondly, if NLC were acting without a lawful stake in LP to do so, why is the union not also involved in the affairs of the APC, PDP, or other political parties of our country? This confirms to you that the law empowers NLC as an institutional stakeholder specifically in the affairs of the Labour Party.”
Speaking to journalists on the side of the forum’s visit, Comrade Omar Abdulwahed told the press, “Reports have reached me from across different parts of the country of Abure’s purported suspension of some members of the Labour Party for one given reason or the other. We have learned that some of these suspensions were as a result of disagreeing with the former acting chairman in one demand of tyranny or the other and in some reported cases for identifying with our National Transition Committee.”
“Let me use this opportunity to re-assure every affected member that such suspensions, especially those carried out after the 9th of June when Abure’s tenure terminated, are null and void.
“Labour Party members throughout our country should recall that Abure himself has been suspended from our party by all leadership tiers of his Edo home state, that is, ward, LGA, senatorial district, and state councils. Let me confirm and re-affirm to you that that suspension stands. Till further notice, therefore, Abure is not a member of the Labour Party.
“For someone who is suspended and is therefore not a member of our party to suspend other members is comic, ridiculous, and laughable. All such persons are hereby re-assured that they remain bona fide members of our party while Abure himself remains suspended. Whatever letterhead and designated persons Abure is using to suspend our party members are unauthorized, acts of impersonation, null and void.
“Let me also warn that at the appropriate time, all persons who are allowing themselves to be used as thoughtless minions to suspend our party members, thereby helping Abure to impersonate and perpetuate himself in office after his tenure has terminated and his name erased from INEC records, shall face harsh consequences as accomplices of Abure’s destabilization mission, crimes, and anarchy in our party. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.”
Also speaking, the Chairman of NTC Media and Publicity Sub-committee, Comrade Tony Akeni, applauded the group for their courage in stepping out of what he called “the dark page of the party’s defunct and rejected Nnewi convention” and called on all Labour Party members throughout the country to emulate the FCT members.
Comrade Akeni stated further, “Your coming, pledge of loyalty and support to the NTC is very symbolic. When a country is at war with another and takes the opponent’s capital city and assets, that means victory and the end of the enemy. As the nation’s capital territory and a powerhouse of the body and soul of the Labour Party, your solidarity and pledge of loyalty to NTC symbolize the end of Abure’s bunker of dissidents. “This should send a strong signal to Labour Party members throughout the rest of the country that there is only one true and lawful authority of the Labour Party, which is the NTC. We urge members of our party everywhere, including elected officers, to emulate your courage and example.”
