The National Chairman of the Labour Party, Comrade Julious Abure, has leveled allegations against the Joe Ajaero-led Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and their followers who stormed the party’s national secretariat during Wednesday’s attack, accusing them of misappropriating funds intended for staff salaries and other valuables. Breaking his silence since the picketing of the party’s secretariat, Abure condemned the actions of the labour leaders as disgraceful and unruly.
In a statement issued yesterday in Abuja, signed on his behalf by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, Abure asserted, “What we witnessed was a shameful display, an act of lawlessness, an abuse of power, and a violation of the nation’s laws.”
“Nigeria Labour Congress is bound by the law. NLC, under Joe Ajaero, is not exempt from the law, and it prohibits Ajaero and the NLC leadership from taking the law into their own hands. Their siege on the office, destruction of property, and unlawful occupation of the secretariat, resulting in the destruction of millions of naira worth of property, is regrettable and unacceptable. Properties, including funds allocated for salary payments and other official purposes, were stolen. This is regrettable and unacceptable. This behavior is intolerable.”
“I must emphasize today that the leadership of NLC under Joe Ajaero is jeopardizing the achievements we made in the 2023 general election.”
Abure, branded a pathological liar by NLC’s Political Commission
In response to Abure’s accusations, Acting Chairman of NLC’s Political Commission, Professor Theophilus Udubuaku, among others, stated, “Abure should be reminded, as he appears to suffer from selective amnesia, that it was the picketing by the Ajaero-led NLC that drove Lamidi Apapa away from the LP headquarters before he took over. When Abure alleges billions of naira were stolen during the picketing, it is clear that he is grossly irresponsible.”
“We want the Nigerian media to understand that NLC is not interested in engaging in a media war with an individual who believes he can single-handedly take charge of the LP.”