NLC shuts down Labour Party headquarters, demands Julius Abure’s sack

Protesting members of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, have barricaded the main entrance into the National Headquarters of the Labour Party, LP, today, Wednesday, demanding the immediate sack of the National Chairman, Comrade Julius Abure.

The protesters were refused entry into the building by armed regular policemen on duty.

However, the largely peaceful protesters were heard singing solidarity songs while calling for an end to “Abure’s reign of corruption tyranny”.

The NLC leadership had accused Abure of planning to hold an “illegal convention”. This, they said, was to perpetrate his rule or in the alternative appoint cronies to act on his behalf.

Recall that both the Joe Ajaero-led NLC and the House of Representatives Caucus of the LP had taken issue with Abure over the planned convention date.

However, Organised Labour, which constitutes a major power block within the party, has demanded that Abure step. They said it would allow an election-independent audit into the party’s finances.

This was sequel to allegations of financial impropriety levelled against him by the erstwhile National Treasurer.

Meanwhile, the Abure-led National Working Committee, NWC, of the Labour Party, LP, had, on Saturday, accused Ajaero of being desperate to replace Abure as National Chairman.

In a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, the party leadership advised Ajaero to resign his presidency of the NLC first before seeking to replace Abure.

Ifoh’s statement was a response to an open letter written on Friday by the political wing of the NLC, the Nigeria Labour Congress Political Commission.