By John Alechenu

ABUJA—President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC,  Joe Ajaero, and the Julius Abure-led faction of Labour Party, LP, have disagreed over those behind the current crisis bedeviling the party.

While Ajaero put the blame squarely on the ruling party and the Federal Government, Abure insisted that Ajaero, the NLC and their support for the Senator Nenadi Usman-led National Caretaker Committee that were to blame.

Ajaero had at a stakeholders meeting of the Usman-led LP-NCC, yesterday, said:  “It is the potentials that we have that is attracting all these attacks. All the agencies of government are involved in the destabilisation plot.

“I call on the government to stop destabiliing workers party. All over the world, Labour Party is organised and ran by trade unions. Over 57 countries have functional Labour Party, why will Nigeria be different? Labour Party is the only party the son of a poor man can become somebody.

“In the next one month, we will finish with sensitisation. Those who want to join Labour Party should come now, but he should be an institutional person.

“The founders of the party owe it a duty to put the party in order. We are not quarrelling with anybody. I sent a letter after the Supreme Court judgement that every worker should be on standby. In the next few days, there will be an action, to take what belong to us.”

In response, the Abure-led faction in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, said the NLC and its President should leave the Federal Government and its agencies out of the party’s internal issues and look inwards.

He said the attention of the leadership of the LP under Abure’s leadership, was drawn to “yet another illegal and purported stakeholders meeting” held in Abuja, by the Ajaero-led NLC in cohorts with the Nenadi Usman-led group.

Ifoh said: “We must state clearly and categorically that if there is any person or organisation that has destabilised the Labour Party or who is working to destabilise the party, it is no other person than Joe Ajaero and the NLC.

“We must also state here that after the general election in 2023, the party has no issues at all, we had no faction and we had no major disagreement in the party.

“It was Ajaero who went ahead to illegally, unprofessionally and unconstitutionally set up a so-called Transition Committee, which went all over the place making noice and debasing the image of the party.

“It was the same Committee set up by Ajaero that was going to INEC everyday, constituting nuisance, all in attempt to destabilise the party, mobilising people, including old and retired men, including Abdulawaheed Omar,  Ejiofor, Lawson Osagie and Prof Theophilus Ndubaku, men who should be resting after many years of serving their fatherland, to go against the interest of the party.”

“Nigerians all over, have asked Ajero to concentrate on his primary assignment to fight for the welfare of workers.

“The regulatory body in charge of the Labour Union in the Ministry of Labour has also publicly admonished Ajaero to excuse himself from matters concerning politics and to face his legitimate assignment as a defend workers interest.

“If there is any group or persons who have worked against the interest of the Labour Party, it is NLC and Joe Ajero. So he should not shift the blame to any person, he should squarely take responsibility for what ever is happening in the party today.”