The Labour Party LP is to hold its national convention on March 27, 2024, spokesperson of the party Obiora Ifoh has said.
Ifoh revealed this in a statement on Saturday in Abuja in reaction to the crisis between the party and the Nigerian Labour Congress NLC.
He said the convention was at the instance of the NLC which the party accused it of interfering with the LP’s activities.
The LP statement said “We must note that undue interference by the Nigeria Labour Congress on the affairs of the party has become worrisome and it has become needful to emphasis here the distinction that the Labour Party has a life of its own different from that of the Nigeria Labour Congress.
Ifoh said the 1999 Constitution gives a registered political party a life of its own whereby it can run it’s own affairs without any interference.
He said “The Electoral Act and the Constitution provide that no organisation can own any other organisation. The NLC as an organisation can not claim the ownership of the Labour Party.
“The constitution of the party is clear that it is only those who subscribe to the party and those who are financial members of the party are the owners of the party and therefore can have a say on the affairs of the party.”
According to the statement, Nigerians would be shocked to discover that all over the country, NLC members and their officials were not card carrying just as he also accused them of supporting either the APC or the PDP.
“We therefore want to advise the NLC and its commission that it should focus only on its statutory responsibilities of defending the workers and the workers’ right. Today minimum wage is N30.000 while a bag of rice is N80.000.
“We hear about NLC talk about ethos and ethics of the Labour movement and the Labour Party, this is also an NLC that cannot call or sustain a strike for one or two days without calling it off.
“This is an NLC which cannot think of calling a protest and sustaining it in order to get the attention of the government for the interest of the workers,” the spokesperson said.