By Seyi Babalola
The Nigeria Labour Congress President, Joe Ajaero, has been tasked by the Labour Party to step down and, if he so chooses, run for the party’s leadership.
Obiora Ifoh, the National Publicity Secretary for the LP, claimed that Ajaero’s mischievous behavior had ruined the NLC’s previous accomplishments.
Ifoh was responding to a letter from the NLC Political Commission, the NLC’s political branch, which demanded that the Labour Party’s scheduled convention in Umuahia, Abia State, be postponed.
The NLC Political Commission also asked the National Chairman of the party, Julius Abure, to resign immediately.
Reacting, Ifoh said LP’s planned convention would go ahead as the constitution of the party already stipulated.
In a statement signed by Ifoh, LP said: “The attention of the leadership of the Labour Party has been drawn to a press release titled ‘A misadventure in political mischief, mismanagement and misdemeanor gone too far’ written by the NLC’s Political Commission as an agent of the Nigeria Labour Congress. The NLC letter did not come to us as a surprise or a shock, it was long expected before now, having known that the NLC was going to engage itself on this misadventure.
“Unfortunately, the rascality of the current president of the NLC, Joe Ajero, has destroyed the successes already recorded. It must be noted that the NLC and its political commission have become a bundle of contradiction and paradox.
“At this point, the leadership of the party wants to ask the NLC, what exactly do they want? If Joe Ajero is interested in the leadership of the party, he is therefore advised to resign as the President of the NLC and join in the contest for the National Chairmanship of the party that is scheduled for the convention on March 27, 2024.
“We must note that undue interference by the Nigeria Labour Congress on the affairs of the party has become worrisome, and it has become necessary to emphasise here the distinction that the Labour Party has a life of its own different from that of the Nigeria Labour Congress. In fact, the 1999 Constitution states clearly that once a political party is registered, it has a life of its own whereby it can run its own affairs without any interference.”
