In its effort to regain legitimacy the Labour Party (LP) has started digging into its archive to produce historical limitations to the powers of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) over the Labour Party (LP).
According to the letter displayed by the LP, the Nigerian Labour Congress does not have any status conferred by the statute over the Labour Party; instead, it enjoys the status of any member of the Labour Party.
The letter written in 2015, signed by Mrs Augusta C. Ogakwu, Secretary to the Commission, and addressed to the former leader of the Labour Party, Ayuba Wabba, reads: “With reference to your letter on the above subject dated August 5″, 2015, I am directed to inform you that the Commission has reviewed relevant documents and records in its possession in respect of the Labour Party and has established the following:
“Membership of the Labour Party as provided in Articles 1 and 9 of the Labour Party’s Constitution, 2009, does not confer any special or superior status on the Nigeria Labour Congress.”
The letter, INEC/DEPMI/LP/16/T/68, is entitled: Re: request for INEC’s Urgent Intervention To Arrest The Activities Of An Imposter Group In Labour Party
The letter further said, “In accordance with Article 15(7) of the Labour Party Constitution, 2009, the elected National Executive Committee (NEC) has a tenure of four (4) years.”
In a commentary signed by the National Publicity of Labour Party, Pastor Obiora Ifoh, Labour leaders should acquaint themselves with history to avoid unnecessary conflict
The comment reads, in part: “A good student learns from history. If people refuse to learn from history, history will continue to repeat itself. When the Nigeria Labour Congress attempted to crookedly take over the leadership of the Labour Party in 2015 and wrote INEC, INEC replied that they had no locus standi to interfere or change the leadership of the party.
“They have failed to learn from that trajectory, and it is surprising that Joe Ajaero’s NLC is also taking the same line of action and trajectory, and they are expecting a different result.
“A reasonable NLC would have been thinking of how to consolidate with the leadership of the Labour Party having made huge exploits and having achieved great results from the 2023 general election; rather, they have chosen a collision cause that will neither help them nor help Nigerians.