The national leadership of the Central Labour movement, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Thursday decried attempts to destabilise the National Executive of the Labour Party through the use of court injunctions.
The President of NLC, Joe Ajaero, said in Abuja on Thursday that the organisation was alarmed by the decision by the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja presided by Justice Hamza Muazu to grant an exparte motion by a group that sought the suspension from office the National leadership of the Labour Party.
The exparte motion had sought the sack from office of the National Chairman, Julius Abure; National Secretary, Farouk Ibrahim; National Treasurer, Clement Ojukwu, and Publicity Secretary, Opara, over what the NLC described as “unfounded/unproven and highly speculative and malicious allegations of corruption, perjury and forgery by elements whose interest in the party could best be described as doubtful or dubious.”
The motion was filed along the substantive suit by eight persons who claimed to be aggrieved members of the party, including the Chairman of the party in Abure’s ward.
Justice Muazu had ordered that the court order would subsist “pending the hearing and determination of a motion on notice for interlocutory injunction”.
“We view the decapitation of the leadership of the party with great suspicion, which cannot be far from the intent to weaken the party from within or distract it from its fight to reclaim its victories at the polls,” the NLC said.
The NLC President said in light of the development, the courts must “exercise utmost caution in entertaining frivolous suits and spurious prayers from mercenary party members as they are capable of compromising the integrity of the courts.”
Similarly, he said the Labour movement joined those canvassing against the casual use of exparte motion in settlement of crisis in the light of the grieviousness of the injuries they quite often inflict.
Noting that the extant court order not only violate the principle of presumption of innocence, a cardinal pillar of the country’s judicial system, he said it was also an affront to justice itself.
“We find it curious that while ex-convicts continue to occupy ample space in the public service or space without let or hindrance, those yet to be found guilty are already being harangued or hounded and debarred from holding office,” Ajaero stated.
The continued relevance of the courts, he pointed out, cannot be divorced from the quality of their decisions or rulings, advising the courts to refrain from taking decisions that would portray them as having descended into the arena, or worse still, make them picketable.
He observed that the grounds for suspending the LP leadership, either in the courtroom or outside it, were not there even as mischievous forces orchestrate evil.
The NLC President reaffirm support for Abure-led leadership, saying they remain executives of the party, adding that the court should consider reviewing its decision immediately.
But, even as the Labour condemned the action of the renegade group through the court, the national headquarters of the Labour Party in Abuja came under attack by a detachment of the Nigerian Police and thugs suspected to be loyal to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
During the attack on the Secretariat, witnesses said the invaders who were armed with various weapons, ransacked the offices, pulled down the fences of the compound, broke burglaries, doors and windows to gain access to the building before proceeding to sack the workers and party members.
The party Chairman who addressed journalists in a location outside Abuja said available information was that the attackers were in the Secretariat with an agenda to inaugurate an illegitimate executive chosen for them by their sponsors.
The latest incident was coming days after a similar invasion in the Imo state Secretariat, which has seen the place still being pre-occupied by the agents of the Imo state government.
The attacks, Abure said, are part of orchestrated onslaught against the Labour Party in recent times, even as its Presidential candidate in 2023 election, Peter Obi, has a subject of a campaign of calumny spearheaded by agents of the ruling APC.
Apart from the Minister of State for Labour and Chairman of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, accusing Obi and his running mate, Baba Datti-Ahmed, of making statement considered inciting, Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, and the also accused Obi of statements bordering of treason.
On Tuesday, Obi, through the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council alerted Nigerians of a sinister plot by government agents to hound him out of the country by collaborating with some security agents to frame him up allegedly on matters bordering on treason.
Following the February 25 election in which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the APC Presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, as winner, the Labour Party has since filed a petition at the election tribunal to contest the process adopted to reach that conclusion in an exercise local and international observers declared was flawed with irregularities.
Abure called on President Muhammadu Buhari to call his party, the APC to order and also rein them in from using unorthodox means to suffocate political structures in Nigeria.
He said it was baffling that after court of competent jurisdiction on Wednesday ordered that he remained the National Chairman, and should not be restrained from performing his duties, the Nigerian Police should allow itself to be used to perpetrate illegalities.
“We advise the Police, APC and their sponsors to play by the rules. We will no longer tolerate the often intimidation and deployment of brute forces against the party and their personnel. We demand they put a stop to abuse of power and respect the rights and privileges of other political parties, particularly, the Labour Party to contest for power,” Abure said.
