The Edo State Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress, on Thursday, picketed the state Labour Party secretariat at Ogbelaka Street, Off Sakponba Road, Benin, over alleged contempt of the Nigeria Labour Congress by the party’s National Chairman, Julius Abure.
Giving further reasons for the picketing, the state vice chairman of the NLC, Suleiman Abubakar, said Abure was running the party like his personal business.
A circular signed by Titus Amba and Chris Uyot, Chairperson and Secretary of the NLC Political Commission, and dated March 19, 2024, directed that all LP state secretariat be picketed by the state council of the Nigeria Labour Congress.
Abubakar said the Labour Party belongs to the NLC, and therefore, the NLC should be carried along in every decision the LP makes.
He also warned that the NLC would not allow Abure to impose any candidate on them as the national chairman.
He said, “We were directed across the 36 states of the federation to picket the Labour Party offices. We ought to have done the picketing on Wednesday as directed by the political commission of NLC, but because we were unable to mobilise our members.
“The reason for the picketing is that the National Chairman, 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 difference with other officials. He must learn to play by the rule of the game. We are not being sponsored. Nobody is sponsoring us,” he said.
Reacting, the Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party in the state, Sam Uropka, said the NLC has abandoned its primary responsibility to Nigerian workers and is chasing shadows, while workers are dying of hunger amid other challenges facing them.
He said, “The Nigeria Labour Congress has left its 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 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 transport to their places of work. The NLC is not looking into that, but they are fighting a political party.
“How many of them are card-carrying members of the Labour Party? For you to query what is happening in a political party, you must be a card-carrying member and also discharge your financial responsibility to the party. Many of them are in PDP, and others are in APC. So, why are they concerned with the events in the Labour Party?”