Don’t attend Labour Party convention in Akure, says NLC President

The Nigeria Labour Congress president, Abdulwaheed Omar, said on Thursday that members of the labour movement should not attend the national convention of the party that is billed to take place on 11 October, noting that the authentic owners of the Labour Party is the labour movement.

According to him, a new date and venue will be fixed, to allow the party to hold its convention independent of another external force.

“I am calling on all the concerned people that are set to attend the convention on 11 October to disregard the convention and return as a new date and venue would be announced.

“Labour Party in Nigeria is expected to be a very strong and vibrant party that would serve the interest of the workers in the country.”

He said the party was very unique and the only one that had statutory stakeholders in the country.

He said that the presidents of NLC and TUC were executive members of the party and two others representing the workers in the country.

Omar said the NLC, Trade Union Congress and other civil society partners in Abuja will decide the future of the party.

“We have been watching with very keen interest the activities of the Labour Party in the recent time and we are concerned with the fixing of date, supervision and hosting of the party’s convention”.

The National Executive Council (NEC) of the party fixed 4 October for its National Convention in Akure but was then postponed to 11 October.

Confusion, however, set in following the defection of the only governor of the party, Olusegun Mimiko to PDP.

“You recall that the only governor of the party, Governor Mimiko, defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with all the members of the executive and the state members of assembly and the party machinery.

“This is a major concern to us that a governor who had already defected to another party is now the one who is sponsoring and hosting an independent party like Labour Party.

“It is that concern that made us to call for this meeting of the stakeholders of the party with the view of making sure that we call for the immediate posponment of the Akure convention”.