The Labour Party(LP), has On Tuesday warned the Independent National Electoral Committee(INEC), to desist from conniving with the party’s Former National Chairman Alhaji A. A. Salam and the acting Secretary Julius Abure,to interfere in the party’s affairs.
The Party specifically directed the warning to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and the Director of Legal Services, Mrs Oluwatoyin Babalola, stressing that it will no longer tolerate their unnecessary and biased interference in the Labour Party.
Giving the warning while briefing Journalists in Abuja, the Party’s National Publicity Secretary, Barr. Ebere Ifendu, revealed that the tenure of the former National Chairman, Salam has ended, and expressed surprise that he is still posing as the chairman.
Ifendu further expressed concern over Salam’s claim to have suspended eight (8) members of the National Working Committee (NWC) and at the same time prolonged his own tenure which she said ended on October 10, 2018.
She pointed out that, with the end of the tenure of the executive, the Labour party does not have a National Working Committee in place, stressing also that the nomination of candidate done by the party after October 11, 2018, is null and void.
According to her, “Confirmed sources revealed that Alhaji A. A Salam on the 9th of October, gathered some miscreants in Minna, Niger state, his home state and told the world that he was holding the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the Labour Party.
“On the 2nd October, 2018, INEC had written to the party to comply with the Order of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court to conduct an all-inclusive National Convention involving all parties covered by the terms of settlement filed on 14th March 2018. The letter is very explicit on the action to take, elongation of tenure and suspension of NWC members are not part of the order of the court
“Our great concern is the fact that he claimed to have suspended eight members of the NWC. The purported suspension is only a fiction of A.A Salam’s widest imagination” she said.
Furthermore, she noted that a 7-man committee is being constituted to oversee the activities of the party and midwife the all-inclusive Convention in accordance with the court order. “It is expected that all this will be concluded within 30 days from today” Ifendu remarked.
On his part, the Deputy National Chairman South, Callistus Okafor, said that Salam does not respect INEC’s orders because he has a friend in Yakubu and Babalola.
He noted that the only statutory members of the Party’s NEC are the Presidents and Secretaries of the Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC), and the Trade Union Congress (TUC).
“What you press men would do, is to ask the INEC Chairman, Mahmoud Yakubu what he has with Salam that Salam does not respect his letters and also Babalola, why does Salam question whatever she says? Something is wrong somewhere!” he ended.
The Labour Party leaders called on the general public to disregard the purported suspension of the eight members of the working committee and the self-elongated tenure of the National Executive Council.
