The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) yesterday took its picketing of secretariats of the Labour Party to Benin City, Edo State.
The union picketed the Edo State LP secretariat at Ogbelaka Street, Off Sakponba Road, Benin City, over alleged financial rascality and contempt of the NLC by the National Chairman of the party, Mr Julius Abure.
The state NLC vice chairman, Suleiman Abubakar, while picketing the secretariat, said Abure was running the party like his personal business.
Recall that a circular signed by Comrades Titus Amba and Chris Uyot, Chairperson and Secretary of the NLC Political Commission respectively dated March 19, directed that all LP state secretariats be picketed by the state council of the NLC.
Abubakar argued that Labour Party belongs to the NLC and therefore NLC should be carried along in every decision and warned that the NLC will not allow Julius Abure to impose any candidate on them as the national chairman.
“We were directed across the 36 states of the federation to picket the Labour Party offices across the states. We ought to have done the picketing on Wednesday as directed by the political commission of NLC, but because we were unable to mobilize our members.
READ ALSO:Okuama killings: I’ll deal with any monarch who shields suspects, says Oborevwori
“The reason is that the National Chairman, Bar Julius Abure is running the party like his personal property. Everybody should be carried along. He has announced the national convention and wants to hand-pick and impose a candidate on us. This is not the time to hand-pick and impose on anybody.
“The way forward is for him to go to the national and resolve his difference with the national. He must learn to play by the rules of the game. We are not being sponsored, nobody is sponsoring us,” he said.
Reacting, the Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party in Edo State, Sam Uropka, said the NLC has abandoned its primary responsibility to Nigerian workers and is chasing shadows while workers are dying of hunger and other challenges facing Nigerian workers.
“The Nigeria Labour Congress has left their primary responsibility. They are supposed to be fighting for the interest of workers for a better living. They have left all these things and they are fighting a political party that is not in government.
“Workers are suffering. Look at the current minimum wage and the cost of foodstuff. Today a lot of persons cannot pay for transport to their places of work. The NLC is not looking into that, but they are fighting political party.
“How many of them are card-carrying members of the Labour Party? For you to query what is happening in a political party, you must be a card-carrying member and also discharge your financial responsibility to the party. Many of them are in PDP, others are in APC. So, why are they concerned with the events in the LP,” he said.
