President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, on Monday let other members of the union to the Labour Party National Headquarters.
NLC members alongside the Congress General Secretary, Comrade Emmanuel Ugboaja, met with the LP’s National Chairman, Julius Abure.
Recall that seven members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) had announced that Lamidi Bashir Apapa, the LP National Vice-Chairman for the South, would take over as acting party chairman in place of suspended chairman Julius Abure, plunging the party into deeper crisis.
The NWC members, led by Apapa based their decision on the judgement of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court which restrained Julius Abure from parading himself as the National Chairman of the party.
But in a solidarity visit to the LP headquarters, Ajaero asked the Apapa-led faction to vacate office or risk being arrested.
Speaking journalists before a private meeting with Abure, he stated that if the LP loses its leadership, the Congress, which serves as the party’s trustee, must convene to decide the next course of action.
He emphasised that no one can take over as new leadership without Congress’s approval.
Ajaero claimed that the purpose of the visit was to rid the party of what he referred to as “rodents” trying to illegally enter their property.
The NLC President said: “For some time now, we have not been visiting our house we decided to visit our house this afternoon after getting some information that there are some rodents trying to move into our house and we have come with some insecticide to fumigate the house from any rodents that are illegally trying to enter our property.
“So that is why we are here, incidentally, we didn’t see any rodents but we will comb around and see whether there are any. The LP is a child of circumstances. It began when we lost almost all confidence in the existing political parties and we felt that the LP will be the ideal political party that will represent our ideological persuasions. In other words, that was why the LP was formed. For anybody or group think that they can sabotage or derail our ideological move, we will resist them with the last drop of our blood.
“This party 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.”
The Labour Union leader asked Nigeria workers to arrest anybody causing trouble for the party that they come across and threatened to confiscate their property.
He said: “Such people, if they attempt to come here next time, all their property, all their houses, their residential houses, we will occupy them where ever it is located. Then they will know that all that they have was given to them by Labour.
“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 it 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 are 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.”
Also speaking, the embattled LP Chairman said that no amount of intimidation or deceit would stop him from pursuing and reclaiming the party’s mandate.
“Let me appreciate the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for this solidarity visit. I want to state here clearly that I remain committed to the struggle for a new Nigeria. I want to say that no man can stop an idea whose time has come.
“The time has come for Nigerians to take back their country. A new Nigeria I believe is possible and no amount of harassment or intimidation. No amount of falsehoods and no amount of falsified stories will derail us from our pursuit. We refuse to be distracted. We will continue to pursue our court case. We are in court because they stole our mandate so we will remain in court till that mandate is recovered. We will not rest on our oars until we reposition Nigeria for greatness,” he stated.
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