*Says LP Not Sincere On NLC Status
THE crisis rocking the Labour Party (LP) and its dispute with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) continue to unfold by the day, the latest being that contrary to claims by the party’s embattled National Chairman, Mr. Julius Abure, a leaked document shows that the Congress actually had a pact with the LP.
Recall that the political wing of the NLC, at a stakeholders meeting recently, sacked Abure and his National Working Committee (NWC) members, declaring the recent convention in Nnewi, Anambra State, that returned Abure and others as nullity.
But Abure and the party leadership have discountenance the action, claiming that the NLC has no power to dismiss him and the NWC.
In a fresh twist, the suspended National Treasurer of the party, Mrs. Oluchi Okpara, has made public, a document showing that the LP had an agreement with NLC following the resolution of an earlier dispute between them, which was mediated by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 2022, bearing the signatures of Abure; immediate past president of NLC, Ayuba Wabba; General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Emmanuel Ugboaja, and National Secretary of the Labour Party, Alhaji Umar Farouk Ibrahim.
The document, titled, ‘Report of mediated settlement between the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Labour Party by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Zambezi Crescent, Maitama, Abuja, read: “We bring you fraternal greetings from the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Labour Party (LP).
“We write to inform you that the mediation initiative brokered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the dispute between the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Labour Party has been successfully consummated on the 27th of June 2022.
“The consummation of the resolution is established in a TERMS OF SETTLEMENT, which was willingly reached without any duress whatsoever between the two parties- the NLC and the Labour Party- and validated by the signatures of the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba; National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure; General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Emmanuel Ugboaja, and National Secretary of the Labour Party, Alhaji Umar Farouk Ibrahim.”
Oparah stated: “The mark of a good and trustworthy person is in his ability to keep his word and respect agreement reached in the course of mediation settlement agreement in the presence of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) between the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Labour Party (LP).
“It is only a morally bankrupt individual who has no moral character that will reached, sign an agreement and then go publicly to deny such agreement.
“The document above will prove to you what I have been saying about the existence of an agreement between the Labour Party and Nigeria Labour Congress.
“Abure and his cohort cannot continue on this path of lies and deception to justify their illegally convened and purportedly conducted national convention.
“This agreement was sign consequent upon the mediation brokered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) between the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Labour Party (LP), which commenced on the 26th of April 2022, and at which commitments were made for an improved cordial relations between the two parties, consequent on the court judgment by Justice Gabriel Kolawole, delivered on the 20th March, 2018.”
He went further: “This mediation settlement agreement was signed by Abure and Farouk on behalf of the party, while Wabba and Ugboaja signed for the union.”
Efforts to get the reactions of Abure and LP to this latest revelation proved abortive.
