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By Chukwuma Umeorah
As tension deepens, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has vowed to recover the Labour Party (LP) from its embattled national chairman, Julius Abure.
The Political Commission of the NLC, in a statement, alleged that Abure was deliberately evading fundamental issues causing a rift within the party, including the NLC’s demand for his resignation.
In response to previous allegations and the NLC members picketing the LP’s national secretariat on Wednesday to demand his resignation, Abure countered by alleging that the president of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, was using workers to sponsor insurrection in the party.
The banter between the aggrieved sides has continued as the NLC, in its latest reply, described Abure as a “political wannabe” whose actions were “laughable, pathetic, and incongruous.”
In the statement, the NLC reiterated that Abure had repeatedly violated a court judgment and an INEC supervised terms of settlement that mandate an all-inclusive national convention of the Labour Party, among others which prompted the demand for his resignation.
Part of the statement read, “In the event that Mr. Julius Abure has suddenly developed selective amnesia, we wish to remind him, as stated in our last press release, that a 20th March 2018 judgment by Justice Gabriel Kolawole pronounced that Labour Party is owned by the Nigeria Labour Congress and that an all-inclusive National Convention should be held to right all the wrongs that the likes of Mr. Abure have foisted on the Labour Party for some time now.
“We understand the psychological trauma imposed on an impostor when the owners of the house come knocking. It is not our fault that Julius Abure has consistently demonstrated lack of respect for court judgments, agreements and more recently contempt for his elders in the labour movement. Clearly, the little coins clanging on the neck of the stray dog appear to have deafened its ears not to hear the hunter’s whistle.
“Nigerian workers and other stakeholders in the Labour Party have resolved that the Labour Party must be fully recovered and repositioned as a political vehicle for the benefit of sincere and patriotic politicians who are committed to making a genuine impact in the lives of ordinary Nigerians. Nothing will change that. Not a thousand vituperations from a drowning wannabe ‘politrickster who has lost the confidence of most of the critical stakeholders in the Labour Party. Nigerian workers have and will always take back whatever is legitimately ours, especially with the law behind us.”
The NLC, however, emphasized that it is not interested in engaging in an exchange of words. Its primary concern is to reposition the Labour Party to address the myriad governance issues rooted in broken politics that affect Nigerian workers.”
