The leadership of the Labour Party on Friday petitioned some relevant government institutions to call the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to order.
This is following Wednesday’s invasion of its secretariats by the NLC, which had directed members to picket all secretariats of the Labour Party in the federation.
News About Nigeria had reported that the NLC revealed that the protests at the Labour Party’s secretariat were to demand the sack of the National Chairman of the party, Julius Abure.
The Labour Party, in response to the move by the NLC, in four separate letters written to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume; Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi; Ministry of Labour and Employment; and Registrar of Trade Unions, Falonipe Amos, called for disciplinary action to be taken against the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, and other union leaders.
Their demands to the government institutions were made known in a statement released by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, on Friday in Abuja.
In the statement, Ifoh slammed the NLC President for using Nigerian workers’ money to picket a political party.
He also debunked reports describing the NLC as the owner of the Labour Party.
The statement partly reads, “Ajaero has overreached himself by using workers funds to picket and sponsor insurrection in the Labour Party headquarters, an action that amounts to an abuse of office and should therefore be called to order and properly sanctioned. It has become unavoidably necessary to request your urgent intervention as the regulatory agency for trade unions, including the NLC.
“It is our arguments that using workers’ funds to picket and sponsor insurrection in the Labour Party headquarters and its legitimate leadership is an abuse of office by the President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, and should therefore be called to order and properly sanctioned. Similarly, the NLC has no right to picket an organisation where there is no trade dispute. The Labour Party has no staff members who are members of the NLC. The action of the NLC is a clear violation of the 1999 Constitution, the Electoral Act, the Trade Union Act, and other relevant laws.”
