Ahead of the 2027 presidential election, the Labour Party (LP) has said that it was not working for the interest of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The opposition party has also accused its founder, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), of falsehood and demarketing the party.
A statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Obiora Ifoh, on Friday, said it has become imperative for the leadership of the party to quickly respond to allegations it described as the handiwork of their adversaries and those who want to desperately frustrate the leadership of the Labour Party at all cost.
“Recently, after the landmark court judgement affirming the leadership of Barrister Julius Abure as the national chairman of the Labour Party, some persons including a former nollywood actor, Kenneth Okonkwo and the acting Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Political Commission, Prof Theophilus Ndubuaku, have tried to push the narrative that the Labour Party under the leadership of Barrister Julius Abure is working for the All Progressives Congress, APC and that is why the Labour Party has been winning all its court cases.
“I must put it clear that this narrative is not only misleading and mischievous but also a calculated attempt to continue to distract, derail and also give the party leadership a bad name in order to be able to hang it.
“I must state clearly that the Labour Party has been and is still critical of APC more than NLC. We put it on records that the NLC in all its ramifications has failed the Nigerian workers. Today, Nigerian workers are oppressed, the economy is not working, there are unfair practices against workers, and nobody speaks for the oppressed workers in Nigeria, except the current leadership of the party. If there is any leadership of the party from inception that has been very critical of the government, it is the Abure leadership of the Labour Party.
“For the first time, the leadership of the party under Barrister Julius Abure has been able to record unprecedented achievements. Today, we can boast that the Labour Party won a majority of votes in the 2023 presidential election, produced a governor, 8 senators, 35 House of Representatives members and several other members of the House of Assembly across the country. From the 2023 general election till now, the Labour Party has been a very vibrant and strong opposition party to this present government,” Obiora said.
He said if there was any opposition party that has been very critical of the current government, it was the Barrister Julius Abure-led opposition Labour Party.
“For any person to say that that leadership is working for an APC led government, it can only be mischief carried too far and a calculated attempt to distract the leadership of the party.
“If there is any organisation that is working for the current government in power, we can assume without hesitation that it is the Nigeria Labour Congress. This is because one would have thought that for a party that has achieved so much, that the NLC should have collaborated or worked closely with the party in order to achieve a more cohesive and stronger opposition to the government. It is therefore puzzling that the NLC chose to embark on actions and behaviors that have slowed down the prosperity of the party in all ramification.
“NLC without any justifiable reason has been fighting the party unduly by invading the offices of the party with hired thugs, attempted severally to forcefully take over the leadership of the party, continuing to embark on campaign of calumny against the leadership of the party, and has been ferociously demarketing the party at will. The NLC even went as far as masterminding a parallel group and leadership by setting up a transition committee.
“It is very clear that the NLC has been the bane of the Labour Party and it has consistently taken steps in ensuring that the party is stagnated. For reasons best known to them, the NLC motivated and ganged up with some of our leaders against the current leadership of the party, for which all of these actions are aimed at weakening and derailing the progress made by the party. So it is very clear that it is even the NLC that is working for the APC and for them to be accusing the Labour Party of working for APC is ironic and laughable.
“We want to advise the NLC that it is time it focused on its primary duty. Recently, the Registrar of the Trade Unions made it very clear that the Nigeria Labour Congress has no business in the affairs of the Labour Party. The recent court judgements have also stated very clearly the position of law in a matter such as the limits of a Labour group in the ownership and administration of a political party in Nigeria,” Obiora said.
He advised the NLC to stop ridiculing itself, stop being a meddlesome interloper and concentrate on its primary role as stated by the laws of the land.
“We urge them to allow the Labour Party to continue making progress toward providing an alternative platform for which we hope to pull Nigeria out from the present predicament.
“For Kenneth Okonkwo, we have decided that we won’t join issues with him because it is very clear that he is still ‘living in bondage’. We are very sure that that ‘living in bondage’ film he acted in some decades ago is still having a very great effect in his life. Today, he says one thing with one side of his mouth, tomorrow he says another thing from another side of his mouth. We will not waste our time to discuss people with unstable character. We can only advise him that there is a huge difference between politics and skit-making, and that he should consider concentrating on the latter, to boost his followership.
“However, it is sufficient for us to put it on record that the Labour Party is not working for APC and that the Labour Party is autonomous. It is therefore important to reemphasize that the Abure leadership is working for members of the party who elected them in office. We therefore want to call on our teeming members to disregard what the NLC, Kenneth Okonkwo and all our adversaries are saying,” the statement added.
