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NLC’s planned strike is economic sabotage, LP faction says.
NLC’s planned strike is economic sabotage, LP faction says.
A faction of the Labour Party, led by Lamidi Apapa, has criticized organized labor for threatening to shut down the economy due to the attack on the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, in Imo State.
NewsReport stated that the party accused the NLC of hiding under the assault on its president to sabotage President Bola Tinubu’s government.
It also accused Ajaero of using the NLC to prosecute a personal agenda of both political and economic nature against the Imo State government.
The National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party faction, Abayomi Arabambi, said this in a statement yesterday in Abuja.
The party also carpeted organized labor for blocking the roads leading to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport as part of the protest against the brutalization of Ajaero by alleged thugs.
The NLC president led a protest in Owerri, Imo State capital, against the state government, where he was assaulted.
This has led the NLC and Trade Union Congress to threaten to embark on a nationwide strike on November 14 unless its demands are met.
The statement by the Labour Party said: “Joe Ajaero’s indiscriminate use of the NLC to prosecute his personal agenda of attempted political and economic conquest of his home state of Imo is an affirmation of his desire to overthrow democracy.
“Just yesterday, he was quoted to have said that nothing was wrong if INEC postponed the election and further affirmed their decision to go ahead with the strike by midnight of Monday despite the restraining order granted to the Federal Government of Nigeria by the National Industrial Court.
“What manner of institutionalized manifest executive rascality is on display, the first of its kind by a labor union leader with a posture that he is a government on his own? Joe Ajaero’s disregard for the rule of law is very alarming, and such an action has definitely overstretched the limit of the law permissible, thus constituting a treasonable felony act.
“Here was a man whose instincts tell him that the people of Nigeria must be made to suffer because his ego was bruised by the Imo State workers who were protesting his dictatorial tendencies of attempting to install his cousin as the chairman of the Imo State Council, NLC.
“The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development would recall that some weeks ago, the Federal Executive Council, chaired by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, approved and adopted wholesale the MOU, and some of the agreements in the MOU have been implemented. The wage award of N35,000 to federal workers is being paid. The N25,000 to be paid over six months to 15 million households is also being executed.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration has also demonstrated his commitments to the MOU by the removal of the 7.5% VAT on diesel as demanded by the Labour Movement, and last week launched the compressed natural gas vehicles, which it promised to provide countrywide.
“But despite all this laudable commitment, the Joe Ajaero-led military wing supporters of the Labour Party are hell-bent on going on strike and shutting down the economy with the sole aim of political and economic conquest of Nigeria simply because one container load economist bland petition was dismissed under two minutes by the Supreme Court.”
The party urged the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development not to blame it for the actions of some people.
