In line with the directives of the national leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, the Edo State Council of the Union has picketed the State Secretariat of the Labour Party, LP.
Arogidigba Global Journal reports that the national leadership of the union had on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 ordered the picketing of all State secretariats of the Labour Party across the country over alleged financial impropriety and contempt of court by the National Chairman of the Party, Julius Abure.
Picketing the state secretariat of the party on Thursday in Benin City, the union accused Abure of running the party like a personal business.
Suleiman Abubakar, the State Vice Chairman of NLC, who led other members of the union to picket the party’s office, opined that the party belongs to the NLC and therefore it should be carried along in all schemes.
Abubakar, however, warned that the NLC will not allow Julius Abure to impose any candidate on them as the next national chairman of the party.
“We were directed across the 36 states of the federation to picket the Labour Party offices across the states.
“We ought to have done the picketing on Wednesday as directed by the political commission of NLC, but because we were unable to mobilize our members.
“The reason is that the National Chairman, Bar Julius Abure is running the party like his personal property.
“Everybody should be carried along. He has announced the national convention and wants to hand-pick and impose a candidate on us. This is not the time to hand-pick and impose anybody.
“The way forward is for him to go to the national body and resolve his differences. He must learn to play by the rules of the game. We are not being sponsored, nobody is sponsoring us”, he said.
Reacting, the Publicity Secretary of the Party in Edo State, Sam Uroupa said the NLC had abandoned its primary responsibility to Nigerians and was chasing shadows while workers were dying of hunger and other challenges facing the nation.
“The Nigeria Labour Congress has left their primary responsibility. They are supposed to be fighting for the interest of workers for a better living.
“They have left all these things and they are fighting a political party that is not in government.
“Workers are suffering. Look at the current minimum wage, the cost of food stuff.
“Today a lot of people cannot pay for transport to their places of work. The NLC is not looking into that, but they are fighting a political party”, he added.