NLC orders members to picket Labour Party secretariats nationwide
The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Labour Party leadership continued to clash, and on Wednesday the labour union sent its state councils and political commission orders to picket Labour Party secretariats all over the nation.
The NLC Political Commission's secretary, Chris Uyot, and chairperson, Titus Amba, signed a letter that contained this information that was obtained on Wednesday.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 was the date on the letter.
The decision is said to have been issued following a virtual meeting on March 19, 2024, between the NLC National Political Commission and the State Council and State Political Committee leadership.
"That in light of the National Chairman of the Labour Party's insistence on holding a Labour Party National Convention unilaterally, as well as his financial mismanagement and disrespect for the NLC leadership, the NLC State Councils and State Political Committees should organise workers to picket all Labour Party state secretariats on Wednesday, March 20, 2024," the letter stated in part.
The Labour Party's National Working Committee allegedly accused Joe Ajaero, the NLC President, of making frantic attempts to unseat Julius Abure, the National Chairman of the party, in a report published on Saturday, March 16.
The Nigeria Labour Congress Political Commission, the political wing of the NLC, wrote an open letter on Friday, to which the charge was published.
Abure and the NWC were accused in the letter of proposing plans for a national convention to be held on March 27 in Umuahia, the state capital of Abia.
Amid concerns about secrecy surrounding the event, the convention was purportedly intended to re-elect Abure as the only administrator of the Labour Party.
Demanding Abure's immediate resignation as party chairman, the political arm of the NLC declared the planned convention to be unconstitutional.
The LP leadership, on the other hand, fiercely disagreed with the decision, claiming Ajaero's purported ambition to succeed him as the party's national chairman was the driving force behind it.
Reacting in a statement headed "Labour Party advises Joe Ajero to resign as NLC President to contest LP Chairmanship," Obiora Ifoh, the LP's national publicity secretary, made it apparent that the leadership of the party does not feel compelled to heed the advice of unionists who are not party members.
"The NLC State Councils and the NLC Political Committees should immediately launch a statewide mobilisation of workers to join the NLC Political Commission and the Labour Party in view of the soon-to-be all-inclusive national convention of the Labour Party.
"To ensure that the picketing and mobilisation are successfully executed, the NLC State Council and State Political Committees should collaborate with our civil society allies, students, traders, and professionals," the Tuesday directive stated.
