The Nigeria Labour Congress has vowed to resist any plot to derail Labour Party, especially now that it is enjoying wide acceptance by Nigerians.
The vow was made on Monday when the leadership of the labour union stormed the national secretariat of the Labour Party at Utako in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja to show solidarity with the embattled National Chairman, Julius Abure, amidst tight security.
Officials led by the National President, Joe Ajaero, also promised to fish out those who want to usurp the party’s leadership.
The PUNCH reports that the LP has been enmeshed in a leadership crisis following an Abuja High Court interim injunction restraining Abure from parading himself as the party’s national chairman.
Following the court order, the party’s national vice chairman (South), Lamido Bashir Apapa, assumed the position of the chairman in an acting capacity.
Addressing workers at the LP secretariat, Ajaero said the party was borne out of frustration over the conduct of Nigerian politicians, stressing that there are laid down procedures to follow before any change of leadership.
He added under no circumstances will the labour movement allows anyone to derail the party they worked hard to recover from impostors.
“Today, we say enough is enough. Never again will any human being enter here under any guise, under any order. Even if we lose our leadership, we have to meet as trustees of this party to decide the next line of action.
“For anybody to illegally declare himself either as chairman, secretary or anything, we urge all workers anywhere in the country, where you see such people, arrest them and bring them to us.
“The hour has come. The Bible says, “from the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of God suffereth violence. And violence taketh by force. Now we have come to take our party, we have come to establish our party. As the fastest-growing party, you can see that envy and jealousy is crippling in. The people that are pioneering this to sabotage us let’s announce here that we know your fathers.
“If you continue this way, we will go after your fathers. We leave it here until we finish our private discussion. Let it be known to the whole world that the NLC fathered LP and we will not abandon our child,” he said.
Ajaero emphasised that only the congress of the party has the power to approve a new leadership and until then, the party would continue to recognise the Abure-led leadership.
He then charged the members of the union all over the country to protect the union and purge it of shady characters.
He said, “Any group that thinks that they can sabotage or derail our ideological move, we will resist them with the last drop of our blood.
“This was formed by the NLC and TUC. This is our party. Nobody can come from the blues and declare himself as the chairman or secretary of our party without our consent.
“It is not done. Such people, if they attempt to come here next time, all their property, all their houses, their residential houses we will occupy it where ever it is located.
“Then they will know that all that they have was given to them by Labour.”
