THE Labour Party has accused the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) of attempting to blackmail, harass and intimidate the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the recent conduct of the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) where its National Chairman and National Secretary were elected.
The Party, in a letter to the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, which is a response to an earlier letter written to the Commission by the NLC, counselled the central labour organisation to stop harassing INEC as it (INEC) is “too enlightened to be harassed, blackmailed, intimidated into taking actions which will be unlawful and gross violation of the laws of the land.”
In the letter dated 19th April, 2021, jointly signed by Labour Party’s National Chairman, Barrister Julius Abure, and National Secretary, Alhaji Umar Farouk Ibrahim, entitled; “Re: Illegal NEC: Further Subversive/Violations of Subsisting Court Orders,” the party while accusing Comrade Ayuba Wabba, NLC President of not being a member of the Labour Party and therefore has no rights and obligations.
“If the President of the NLC is so desperate to seize the party, he should be patient enough to wait for the court to make decision or form a new political party as he proposed in the last NLC NEC Meeting,” the party stated, asking him and Mr Femi Falana (SAN) to “stop the razzmatazz of the consent judgement.”
Barrister Abure and Alhaji Ibrahim countered the allegation by the NLC in its letter to INEC that the party violated the terms of a consent judgment entered into in the past, arguing to the contrary by stressing instead that the judgment did not strip the party of its powers of decision-making or running the party.
“If indeed, there was an order being violated the Court itself has inherent powers to enforce its orders. The declaratory judgment did not strip the party of its powers to make decisions or run the party as to when to hold a NEC Meeting or a Convention,” two leaders held.
They noted that ordinarily, the party would have ignored NLC’s letter, but it decided on the response because of the “attempted blackmail of the staff of INEC.
“The leadership of our Party would have ordinarily ignored the letter for two reasons: Firstly, there appears to be nothing new and of serious importance as it relates to the substance and content of the letter. Secondly, the Commission should by now be familiar with the persistent clandestine moves by the NLC to forcefully, unconstitutional and illegally take over the leadership of the party or bring it to a comatose.
“However, in view of the attempted blackmail of the innocent, hardworking, dedicated and law abiding staffs of the Commission who are only doing their jobs legally makes it becomes [sic] imperative for us to respond to the letter.”
The party while giving further insight on the matter stated:
“When our attention was first drawn to the letter written to you by Comrade Maria Lebeke the Deputy Chairman of Our Party who acted as the Chairman till 29th of March 2021, we saw the hand of Esau but the voice of Jacob in her letter. The NLC has further confirmed the situation.
“Comrade Maria Lebeke as Acting National Chairman signed the three notices to the Commission for a NEC Meeting where the agenda for the meeting was made obvious.”
Comrade Lebeke, the party further revealed, presided over the NEC meeting and signed all documents that emanated from the meeting, such as the agenda, the secretariats report, the motion moved on the floor of NEC, the seconder of the motion and the adopted resolutions.
“Evidence are abound that Comrade Maria Lebeke had no objection whatsoever to the outcome of the NEC Meeting. There is therefore no doubt that her somersaulted [sic] was instigated, propelled, sponsored, funded and teleguided by the NLC,” the National Chairman and Secretary stated.
They pointed out that as a product of law, the NLC must also obey the laws just as they urged the NLC to note that once registered, a political party has a life of its own and therefore can only be regulated by its constitution.
While calling on INEC to disregard all the letters written by the NLC in connection with the NEC meeting held on the 29th of March 2021, the national officers asserted that in addition to the constitution which is meant to guide the party’s internal operations, the Trade Union Act prohibits the NLC from using its funds to fund a political party.
It added that INEC had already admonished the NLC to the extent that Labour Party’s constitution “does not confer any special or superior status on the Nigeria Labour Congress,” an advice which the party said was disregarded.
“It must be pointed out that the Nigeria Labour Congress is a product of Law and must therefore obey the Laws of the Land. Section 80 of the Electoral Act (As Amended) provides that “a political party once registered has a life of its own and its [sic] only regulated by its Constitution. Section 221 of the 1999 Constitution (As Amended) prohibits any association from contributing to the funds of any political party. The Trade Union Act equally estopped the NLC from using their funds to fund a political party.
“The Commission’s earlier response to the NLC (Attached as Annexure I) where the Union was admonished that the Labour Party’s Constitution does not confer any special or superior status on the Nigeria Labour Congress has fallen on deaf ears.
“Article[s] 9 and 10 [of] Our Part’s [sic] Constitution (As Amended) in 2019 provides [sic] that only persons who are members of the party have rights and obligations to the party. Ayuba Wabba is not a member of our party.
“The Chairman will further recall that this is not the first time the NLC will be parading a declaratory judgment.
“Attached as Annexure J was our response dated 21st of November 2018 to the Commission when they raised similar issues. Since then nothing has change[d]. We shall therefore rely on the content of that letter as it relates to the declaratory judgment.”
