• Says Trade Union Act prohibits partisan politics
• Insists INEC recognises Abure, other party officials
The Labour Party (LP) has accused leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) of doing a hatchet job to destroy it.
National Legal Adviser of the party, Kehinde Edun, who spoke during a media briefing at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja, said that the LP “is being assailed on all sides by paid agents, mainly the NLC and its cronies.”
He said that the job, for which the NLC had been paid, was to create a semblance of division and crisis in the party, saying that despite their evil agenda, the party remains strong and stable.
“The leadership of the NLC and the dubious committees and commissions they have created are not members of the party. They are external aggressors paid by rival political parties to embark on a campaign of calumny and ferocious attacks against the party’s leaders,” he said.
Edun argued that NLC’s attempt at hijacking the Labour Party is illegal and unconstitutional, adding that the Constitution forbids ownership of a political party by anybody or group.
He also accused the NLC of flouting the law by applying the congress funds towards political objective.
The legal adviser said that the non-attendance of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did not invalidate Labour Party’s Nnewi convention.
According to him, the law did not make it mandatory for INEC to attend any party’s convention, arguing that what the law requires is proper notice from the party to the commission.
“This is provided for in Section 82 (1) to 82 (5) of the Electoral Act, 2022,” he said, adding that those provisions only require at least 21 days’ notice to INEC.
