….LP wants NLC to resolve differences with party chairman
Baring any last minute changes , there are strong indication that the 2023 Presidential candidate of Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi has concluded plans to meet with Alhaji Lamidi Apapa and his members of Central Working Committee as a way to resolve lingering crisis that is rocking the Party.
Salient Times gathered that the meeting which is scheduled for Saturday is to seek a political solution to the Party’s crisis ahead the 2027 general elections
It could be recalled that Mr Peter Obi has on Tuesday prevented the political commission of Nigeria Labour Congress from sacking Barrister Julius Abure from the Party Secretariat.
While addressing the NLC members, he pleaded that he should be allowed to broker peace among the warring parties in the Party.
Meanwhile,the decision of the Alhaji Lamidi Apapa-led faction of the Labour Party to back Mr Julius Abure as the National Chairman is a commendable step.
National Deputy Chairman of LP, Dr Ayo Olorunfemi, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Lagos.
He said the faction had taken the path of wisdom by recognising Abure.
According to him, LP is waiting for the party’s parent body, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), to resolve its differences with stakeholders in the party, particularly the chairman.
“It (Apapa/Abure reunion) is a welcome development and we are expecting NLC to also take the same path of wisdom.
“Now ,Nigerians can now understand that all the allegations levied against our National Chairman are politically motivated.
“I must tell you that some of the elements fighting him (Abure) from NLC are doing so on the strength of that same allegations.
“It is now over and the need for a united front is now,” Olorunfemi, the Ondo State LP governorship candidate in the forthcoming gubernatorial poll, said.
On the transition committee set up by NLC, the LP chieftain described it as an exercise in futility.
Olorunfemi, a former labour union leader, said ,” The union is guided by its constitution and there is no provision in the LP constitution that grants NLC any power to do what it is doing.”
“Concerning the national convention, NLC, just like TUC, has only 3 delegates out of over 200.
“Everything before and during the convention was done in line with the party ‘constitution and the Electoral Act.
“It will be good for NLC too to follow the path of honour and nominate its statutory representative to join the NWC,”he said
NAN recalls that the LP was engulfed in a leadership crisis shortly after the 2023 general elections, leading to the factionalisation of the party along the Apapa-led National Working Committee (NWC) and the incumbent Abure-led NWC.
A court later restrained Abure and three others from parading themselves as national officers of the party.
Abure , supported by the NLC ,fought fiercely to reclaim his seat and was later affirmed as the party Chairman .
However, Abure later fell out of favour with the NLC, following a contentious national convention held in Anambra, that returned him and all loyal members of his faction to office on March 27
