Following Wednesday’s invasion of its secretariats, the leadership of Labour Party (LP) has formally petitioned relevant government institutions requesting that an urgent intervention be taken to protect the party against further aggression from the Nigeria Labour Congress.
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, the party also called for disciplinary action to be taken against the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, and other union leaders who spearheaded the alleged vandalisation of its property.
The demand comes barely 24 hours after the embattled National Chairman of LP, Julius Abure, lamented that they lost property worth millions of naira and some staff salaries to the siege.
The ongoing conflict between the NLC and the leadership of LP escalated on Wednesday when members of the union picketed the party’s secretariats across the country.
The move was to press home their demand for Abure’s resignation.
But on Friday, the party petitioned the Federal Government, demanding that sanctions be meted out to Ajaero and his loyalists for intimidating their members and vandalizing its properties.
A statement released in Abuja by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, also debunked reports describing the NLC as owner of Labour party.
He said, “Ajaero has over reached himself by using workers funds to picket and sponsor insurrection in the Labour Party headquarters, an action which 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, being 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 Presidents 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.”
