The leadership of the Labour Party (LP) has renewed its feud with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), insisting the Congress has been persistent with plots to destabilise the party to justify the plans of some of the party members to defect without losing their elective positions.
The National Legal Adviser of the party, Barrister Kehinde Edun, alleged at a press conference on Wednesday in Abuja that the NLC and some of the party’s elected members were masterminding what appeared to be a crisis to justify their defections.
Some elected national and state assembly members have recently defected from the LP, including the LP Senator from Imo State, Francis Onyewuchi, who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC), citing a crisis in his former party.
This is even as the Transition Committee set up by the NLC to oversee the national and state congresses of the LP insisted that the congresses held in some states by the national chairman of the party, Julius Abure, remain illegal and in violation of a court order.
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The committee’s chairman and former NLC President, Abdulwaheed Omar, demanded the immediate resignation of Abure on Tuesday to resolve the crisis in the party.
However, the party’s legal adviser said the NLC’s attempt to take over the party was illegal and unconstitutional, citing sections 221 to 229 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as forbidding the ownership of a political party by anybody or group.
He also condemned the NLC for flouting the law by applying Congress funds towards political objectives. He said sections 15(1) to 15(3) of the Trade Union Act prohibit the NLC from applying its funds towards any political objectives.