No fewer than 15 affiliate unions of the Edo council of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, have dissociated themselves from the process that supposedly produced Chief Odion Olaye as the Chairman of Edo State NLC in the face of protest, litigations, court injunction and other issues.
These Unions, in a jointly signed press statement issued in Benin city said “the purported Delegate Conference held on the 7th day of March, 2023 was an act of illegality held in defiant to a subsisting matter in the National Industrial Court, Abuja challenging the process and procedure of the Conference which violated the congress Constitution.
The protesting Unions say “we had protested through a petition dated February 28th, 2023 to the National secretariat through the General Secretary complaining about the overbearing, intimidating, and bullying attitude of the state chairperson, Odion Olaye, who invaded a State Executive Council meeting with thugs, thus disrupting the composition or setting up of the Screening Committee as well as ractifying the nomination of delegates to the state conference as provided for in Articles 11(2)(vi) and 29(4) of the NLC Constitution, as amended.
“In furtherance of our determination to check or prevent an illegality to be foisted on us, an action was filed at the National Industrial Court, Abuja, complaining about the violation of the provision of the constitution that guides NLC State Conference/Election”.
“Despite the service of the court process on the National Secretariat, President and Secretary General of the NLC who are parties to the suit, they still went ahead with the election in defiant of the pending matter”.
The protesting affiliate unions also stated in their release that,
“it became too obvious of a fact that the state government interfered in the election process with its open support for the candidacy of the Chief Odion Olaye who is a member and Leader of the Peoples Democrtic Party, (PDP), in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State, by intimidating, harrasing and threatening workers in the public sector of posting to rural areas or outright dismissal if they fail to withdraw their nomination or declare support for Olaye”
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“At the State Conference, which was supposed to be an exclusive NLC matter, the PDP candidates for the House of Assembly were brought in to campaign but for the prompt refusal of the of delegates, the conference would have been turned to a PDP political rally.”
Pandemonium broke out at the conference when it was announced that one of the chairmanship aspirants was disqualified.
The refusal of the Returning officer to entertain questions on the disqualification led to the disruption of the Conference with thugs unleashing violence on delegates and everyone scampered for safety as over 90% of delegates and 15 Union left the venue.
The Union condemned the state government for its meddlesomeness in to NLC elections and also accuse the national leadership of NLC of complicity in the entire crisis by their failure to address the petition sent by the Unions.
The Union regarded the fraudulent and unlawful conference conducted at dusk as a scandalous disgrace to labour movement.
While announcing the suspension on their participation in all activities of NLC Edo State Council, they vow not to allow the atrocious illegality to stand.