• Says both working for personal aggrandisement
By Chukwudi Nweje
Some stakeholders in the Labour Party (LP) on Friday with the party accused the embattled National Chairman of the party, Julius Abure, and National President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero of letting their aggrandisement get in the way of their core responsibilities to the working class.
The group – Lagos Assembly of Labour Veterans and Trade Unionists, noted that Abure and Ajaero have expended time and energy on who will control the Labour Party while governments at all levels exploited the Nigerian people.
The group, therefore, demanded the immediate resignations of Abure and Ajaero for failing in their mandate.
He said: “On both sides of the Labour front, the reality of the situation is that workers have been made to suffer a crushing defeat, from which they will continue to leak their open wounds and also find it extremely difficult to quickly heal.
“On top of this disconcerting labour leadership ineptitude, what is going on in the Labour Party under the watch of Abure, is a rape of democracy.
Addressing a press conference in Lagos, spokesman of the group, Isah Tijjani, a former Vice President of NLC and former National Deputy President of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), who was also one-time Presidential aspirant on the platform of the Labour Party, while commiserating with Abure on the recent alleged assassination attempt on his life and arson at his house, said the rift between Abure and Ajaero has encouraged government at all levels to implement anti-people policies and to exploit workers unchallenged.
He said: “The amount of energy, time and resources that has been needlessly dissipated in this raging battle for personal aggrandisement, leaves a sour taste in the mouth.
“The discomforting aspects of this unfortunate situation is the resultant callous and complete abandonment of the constitutional duties and core responsibilities duly bestowed upon these leaders, namely; to strongly promote and protect the rights and freedoms of their toiling members, against any forms of unlawful encroachment by some individuals, government or the organised private sector.”
Tijjani said Abure’s desperation to remain LP National Chairman made him ignore the constitution of the party and also alienated some stakeholders of the party.