The Labour Party on Sunday warned the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Nenadi Usman-led caretaker committee against any attempt to forcibly take over its national secretariat on Monday.
National Secretary of the party, Umar Farouk Ibrahim, raised the alarm in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja.
According to him, the NLC plans to break into their offices to cart away sensitive documents and vandalise properties belonging to the party as they did in the past.
He said, “We view this (planned) action as irresponsible and evidence of desperation by the NLC. The laws of the Labour Union forbid them from partisan politics, which they did on different occasions in the past when they mobilized miscreants to desecrate the party headquarters and vandalise the properties.
“It must be noted that the judgment of the Supreme Court delivered on April 5 is very clear and unambiguous. The judgment simply mandates that political parties always resolve their crisis using internal mechanisms. There is nowhere in the judgment that gave NLC or the caretaker committee to take over the leadership of the Labour Party.”
The LP scribe warned that any attempt to force out the current party leadership would be resisted.
“There is a leadership in place in the Labour Party, and Julius Abure, who was validly elected at a convention held in March 2024, still remains the National Chairman of the Labour Party. Any attempt to forcefully usurp the present leadership will be resisted.
“We are by this statement calling on the attention of the security agencies including the Police, and the DSS amongst others to ensure that any activity that is capable of breaching the peace of the FCT must be nipped in the bud and that the masterminds, no matter how high they might be, are apprehended and made to face the full wrath of the law,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the spokesman for the Usman-led caretaker committee, Tony Akeni, expressed surprise when asked if they planned to truly invade the secretariat.
While dismissing the allegation, Akeni said it was a case of the guilty taking to his heels even when no one was chasing after him.
He said, “The allegation is of a criminal nature. But as [novelist] James Hadley Chase says, the guilty are afraid. And they flee when no man is pursuing them. Perhaps they are acting reverse psychology on what they would have done if they were in our position.
“These people are intentionally criminal in mind and nature. Let us get this thing straight. If you are an illegal tenant in an apartment and you have exhausted your stay, legally and otherwise. Even the Supreme Court has ruled that Abure is not in any position to put himself as the national chairman of the Labour Party based on that verdict.
“If they are wise and law-abiding, after the judgment, what they should have done is to put their luggage together and hand over the key to the caretaker committee chairman, Nenadi Usman. But if they refuse, of course, we have no option but to flush them and take over our possession. But it will be done lawfully.” (NAN)
