Labour
Labour Party Petitions INEC over ‘Illegal Convention’
By Obaje Abdulrahman
The Labour Party has petitioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the purported convention held by its former National Chairman, A. A. Salam.
The petition dated June 24, 2019, which was signed by all the state chairmen of the party and made available to DAILY ASSET, stated that the so-called convention held by the erstwhile chairman is illegal as the convention was held with “non-party members and miscreants.
The petition further stated: “We write to protest against the illegal convention of the Labour Party by A.
A. Salam.“Sir, you will recall that A.
A. Salaam was removed from office on grounds of gross financial misconduct.“Recently he gathered miscreants and non-party members in a village in Nasarawa State where he claimed to have held the party’s long awaited convention which the courts had ruled must be expansive and all-inclusive.
“Mr. Chairman, you will recall that your Commission has demonstrated commitment to ensuring that the Consent Judgement issued by the Federal High Court Abuja, is strictly adhered to, but the illegal and unilateral action by A. A. Salam in the name of a party convention appears to be aimed at thwarting the good intentions and efforts of your Commission.
“The Federal High Court Abuja had ruled that an expansive and inclusive National Convention of the party be jointly convened, where all the relevant members and stake holders of the party will participate to democratically elect new leaders for the party.
The petition also claimed that A. A. Salam carried out the convention without the National Working Committee and the party national leaders contrary to the constitution of the party.
It stated further that, “To underscore the illegality of the so-called convention, members of the National Executive Council (NEC) were not informed of the so-called Salam’s Convention contrary to Rule 13 Section B (I – xviii) of the party’s constitution, which deals with the powers and functions of the national executive council, and vests the responsibility of authorizing and convening on the NEC. In this case, the NEC never met to take such a decision, neither was any of us contacted. Even the statutory NEC members of the party as contained in Rule 13 section 2 A (xi and xxii), which are the Presidents and the General Secretaries of TUC AND NLC as well as the Chairperson of NLC Women Commission, were not invited or notified. In a nut-shell, the National Executive Council Members of the Party were not part of that illegal gathering.”, it continued.
The petition therefore prayed that the INEC disregard the so-called convention and regard it as a nullity.
On his part, The National Labour Congress (NLC) President, Comrade Ayuba Waba said that A. A. Salam and his group are out to hijack the Labour Party and that the party was not for acquisition.
Comrade Ayuba said “The party is not for acquisition, it cannot be acquired. It is not something that can be acquired and certainly they cannot also acquire Nigeria.
“So I think what they have done is illegality and we are challenging it in court and also through our normal way of engagement and that is why I think the leadership (of the labour party) have come here including the members of the National Working Committee to say that they are not part of what has transpired and they want a process that would actually take back the ownership of the party.
“And we are also warning. Anybody that does business with Salam and co, including buying of forms cannot receive the support of labour and of any of the social groups I have mentioned above.
Since 2017 the Labour Party under the leadership of A. A. Salam has been undergoing myriads of problems that eventually led to his removal from office on grounds of gross financial misconduct.
The national leaders of the party therefore converged on Abuja in frantic effort to salvage the party.
The National Deputy Chairman of Labour Party, Comrade Ladi Ilya said “What we are trying to do today, you know right from 2017 the party has been in problem of leadership and A. A. Salam was the chairman.
“Before he became the chair, he was the secretary of the party for eight years and having served he now requested that he want to be the chair, that he wants to stay just for one tenure and he was allowed to stay based on the understanding of the members of the party and unfortunately, we found out that instead of the party to progress, it was declining and so the executive members decided to say look, people are complaining.
By Ateed Yusuf, Abuja
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero has directed public sector workers in the country to embark on strike beginning from Wednesday next week.
He also directed that affiliate unions constituting the Nigeria Labour Congress should also be on standby for picketing exercises across all branches of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) nationwide.
The directive followed an earlier ultimatum issued by the Central Working Committee members of the NLC last week criticising the cash swap policy of the Federal Government.
Ajaero said the decision to picket CBN branches became necessary, as the Federal Government and the CBN have not shown any commitment to address the situation.
He lamented that despite the Supreme Court order allowing the old N500 and N1000 notes to circulate with the new notes till December 31 this year, the situation appears to be getting worse as workers cannot access cash to pay fares to work, nor can they buy food for their families.
Briefing reporters yesterday at the headquarters of NLC, the apex Labour union also criticised the pricing irregularities in the petroleum sector, which was also a cause for concern.
“Last week, we gave an ultimatum for the review of the cash crunch bedeviling the country, but we have discovered to our dismay that as at this moment not much effort has been made to ameliorate the situation, the government is still foot dragging on these issues we raised.
“Based on this, we met again this morning to review our position and resolved that by Wednesday next week, all CBN branches will be picketed.
“Workers are directed to stay at home too because people cannot eat, workers can no longer go to the office, we have been pushed to the wall, we have decided to take our destiny in our hands, we have mobilised our workers for this exercise,” Ajaero stated.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) yesterday urged the Federal Government to appoint governing boards in all aviation parastatals to ensure effective service delivery.
The newly-elected NLC President, Joe Ajaero, made the call at a meeting with Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP) in Lagos.
He said that the establishment of governing board in the parastatals would help ease the challenges facing the sector.
“One of the ways in solving the challenges facing the aviation sector in Nigeria is the establishment of governing boards across the aviation parastatals.
“Every parastatal needs a governing board to help in taking key decisions that will impact aviation; so, since there ain’t any board across, it is impacting negatively on the sector.
“An interim board isn’t the same thing as having a board because it has been over eight years. So, I don’t understand why a permanent board hasn’t been established.
“This step is critical for the improvement of key factors in the aviation which will translate to rapid improvement in the sector,” he said.
Ajaero reiterated the importance of the country having its own national carrier to boost its image.
He noted that the process of establishing a national carrier should follow due process to ensure its smooth operation.
Ajaero also said that the concession of airports across the country would not be visible without the establishment of governing boards.
“The nation must have a national carrier as this will help the image of the country; but in carrying out the process to establish the carrier, all due process must be followed.
“We can’t keep having foreign airlines operate in our airports. To ensure that we have our own carrier, we must follow the right process to ensure its smooth take off and operation.
“Also, it is important to note that concession of airport must be done with governing boards in aviation parastatals as they are crucial in taking key decisions; anything done other than this is I llegal,” he said.
The NLC president further said that unions in the aviation sector were not illegal, noting that the unions were established to protect the interest and welfare of staff.
He advised aviation unions to merge into one, saying that the emergence of several unions in the sector prevented a united front.
He assured the public that the NLC would perform its duties diligently.
“We assure Nigerians that we will ensure that we serve them to their best interest.
“It isn’t going to be easy because there will be several challenges but we will adopt the best strategy to ensure that we perform our duties well,” Ajaero said.
The General Secretary, ANAP, Saidu Rasaq, commended the NLC on its visit and urged the congress to help facilitate the condition of service for airport workers
.
From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), Kogi Chapters, have urged Gov. Yahaya Bello led administration to subsidise housing loan for workers in the state.
The state’s NLC and TUC Chairmen, Onuh Edoka and Tijani Ahmed, made the call in separate interviews with with Our Correspondent in Lokoja, Tuesday.
Our Correspondent reports that the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) in collaboration with NLC/TUC/NECA had on Jan.
26, inaugurated 100 housing units estate for civil servants in the state.“If you look round and going by the history of Kogi since its creation, successive administrations have provided housing estate for state workers.
“But for seven years running now, this administration has not been able to provide housing for state’s workers.
“So, the organised labour unions want the state government to cash in on this opportunity to acquire the FMBN housing scheme and give it to workers.
“The government should acquire the housing estate and allocate it to the interested civil servants in the state,” he said.
According to him, the FMBN is meant to provide housing for Nigerian workers, and it is the workers’ contribution that had made the bank to be what it is today.
“So, we don’t expect anything less than 100 per cent of the occupants of this FMBN/NKC/TUC/NECA housing estate to be workers; that is our position,” he said.
The unions also advised that if the state government could not build housing estate for workers as proposed, it should subsidise the price of the FMBN Housing estate for the workers.
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