The Labour Party has accused the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) of breaking into its national headquarter in Abuja and vowed to take the union to court.
It said the leadership of the NLC led by Comrade Joe Ajaero is consumed by greed and described the picketing of offices of the party as an act of indiscretion.
In a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Obiora Ifoh, on Wednesday when NLC picketed all Labour Party offices nationwide, the party accused the Labour union of destroying its properties, an act it said was “criminal” and “a misplacement of priority and an action done in bad fate.”
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The party also noted that the President of the NLC, “Ajaero’s greed and inordinate ambition have pushed him into losing every sense of discretion and decency in his recent conducts, be it in his affairs with the workers or even the government.”
The party wondered how Ajaero would lead “persons who are known to have partisan interests in other major political parties such as the PDP and APC against a recognized independent political party.”
It stated that Ajaero’s continuous claim that NLC owns the Labour Party is not in any way supported by either the Electoral Act or the Constitution.
“For his information, a political party is owned by those who are card-carrying or financial members of the party. We are aware that more than 90 per cent of the members of the NLC have not met this condition and therefore cannot claim to be the owners of the party.
“The constitution also provides that no organisation can own any other organisation. The NLC as an organisation can therefore not claim the ownership of the Labour Party.
“Today, Nigeria is witnessing the worst economic strangulation ever in the history of Nigeria. Issues such as poor workers’ wages, high inflation and insecurity with Nigeria turning to a hobbesian state, yet after a year of his assumption of office, Ajaero has chosen to ignore all these national challenges.
“It would interest you to know that Ajaero’s NLC is yet to successfully picket any Federal Government establishment. His attempt to extend his rascality to Imo state was met with a higher and brutal force.
“Unfortunately for us in the Labour Party we do not command any force unlike the NLC that is now encouraging militancy within its ranks.”
The party said “by its own constitution, the NLC cannot even call for a picketing of any establishment without a directive of its NEC but what we saw was a political committee acting out an illegal script by Ajaero.
“The committee has no legal right to call an action in the nature of picketing or breaking and entering into a political party where most of them are not even members,” the statement said.
Ifoh argued that the present NLC leadership is politicised. “It has left its primary responsibilities of defending Nigerian workers and has delved deeply into partisan politics and this is a bad omen for the working community.
“We have earlier advised Ajaero to emulate leadership of Ayuba Waba, Olaleye Quadri and Festus Osifo who had or are currently passing through a similar route and still maintain a working relationship with the party.
“We are however reviewing today’s criminal actions and disruption of activities in our national headquarters with our legal department for further actions.
“What we saw today appears to be a personal vendetta against the national chairman, Julius Abure who they called several unprintable names including labelling him a thief.
“We are certainly going to take legal action on matters of libel,” Ifoh said in the statement.