…Proposed meeting gathering of drama boys — Abure
…Calls on security agencies to halt meeting
…No family without a fight, let us focus on helping the poor — Peter Obi
The crisis rocking the leadership of the Labour Party (LP) has deepened as the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) announced a stakeholders meeting for today.
In an invitation sent out to the media and stakeholders of the party, signed by Acting National Chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC Political Commission, Prof. TCN Ndubuaku called for a meeting to inaugurate a caretaker committee for the Labour Party.
This is as the party has also vowed to displace the leadership of Julius Abure in the party.
The NLC Head of Information and Public Affairs, Comrade Benson Upah said the achievement of Comrade Joe in this direction “will be that he is striving to recover the party from the wrong hands. From the Abures of this world who see the party from the backdoor. What Comrade Joe has decided to do was to toe the fighting spirit of his predecessor, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, who also wanted to recover this party.”
He further said, “The next thing which will be considered as his achievement is, he has been speaking out, he has been making interventions on a number of issues including the state of insecurity, hunger in the land, anger in the land and what appears to be the shutting down of the democratic space. He never kept quiet; he has been talking and acting.
“Quite unfortunately, when he does those things, some critics say, oh, he has a political agenda. That it is because the Labour Party did not win the national election that that was the reason why he was behaving the way he was doing.
“Once again, nothing could be farther from the truth. The stage in which we have found the Labour Party in fact, comrade Joe met Labour Party the way it is. I’m making this point today because people try to ethnicize quite a number of things. I mean that he does. They say because he comes from the same geo ethnic place with Peter Obi. I mean the presidential candidate of Labour Party, that his sentiments were decidedly against APC, but it’s not true.
“At the time Obi crossed over to Labour Party, Comrade Joe Ajaero hadn’t become president of NLC, he wasn’t. All that was done by his predecessor, a northerner. So for us, we don’t look at issues from the prisms of religion, or ethnicity. We look at issues purely from the prism of ideology. And we’re not guided by other sentiments.
“We’re guided by our national interests. We’re concerned about the security of this country, the sovereignty of this country. These are our stronger motivations. We love this country more than anyone.”
Reacting to the stakeholders meeting scheduled to hold today, the Julius Abure-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the Labour Party (LP), has dismissed the meeting describing organisers of the proposed meeting as “drama boys” and “attention seekers.”
In a statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Obiora Ifoh, he said, “It has come to the knowledge of the leadership of the Labour Party of a letter of invitation trending in some sections of the media purportedly written by some desperate characters in the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC inviting some Nigerians to an illegal stakeholders meeting scheduled to hold on Monday, in Abuja, wherein they propose to appoint a caretaker committee for the Labour Party.”
“This meeting being organised by some drama boys and attention seeking personalities in the NLC is illegal as we have not authorised it and it is not supported by any law in the land and therefore its outcome, a nullity.
“We are therefore calling on all genuine members of the party to disregard and shun the meeting.
“Few days ago, the Federal Government raised the electricity tariff to about 300 percent and the NLC has neither responded to it or has called out its members to protest the increment but it is quick to convene an unlawful meeting of disgruntled members who are not even party members.
“We are calling on the law enforcement agencies to rise up to the occasion and abort this gathering which may likely degenerate to public nuisance.
“NLC does not have any proprietary right over the Labour Party and therefore cannot continue to lay claim to its ownership.”
Meanwhile, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 General elections has stated that he has no intentions on leaving the party despite the crisis.
According to Obi, the leadership crisis rocking LP would be resolved amicably.
“The Labour Party is not the problem of Nigeria, the problem of Nigeria is beyond the Labour Party, so my focus is on Nigeria.
“My promise is a new Nigeria, and that new Nigeria is where I’m focused and we must remain focused on it. If it is not about the leadership of Nigeria, I wouldn’t have provided this water. Let’s talk about how people will live and eat, I assure you that the Labour Party will resolve those issues – it is family, no family without fight, no individual is perfect.
“I have said it before, I’m not desperate to be president, I’m desperate to see Nigeria working for poor people. It is important for me because we cannot continue this way. The poor people in this country are suffering a lot and I am urging all leaders –in and out of office, this is time for us to listen, time to work with them (the poor), time to feel a bit of their pain,” he said.