The impasse recently engulfing the Labour Party has taken a new twist with revelations coming from the National Chairman of the party, Mr. Callistus Uju Okafor.
Okafor, who had served as the Deputy National Chairman to the late A A Salaam stated this in an interview with some national dailies recently.
Okafor, pointedly accused the leadership of Nigerian Labour Congress and the Abure faction of fostering the crisis. He stated that he and some stakeholders had in the interest of peace called for a true and thorough reconciliation within the party but certain persons were not interested in peace.
He wondered why even meetings called to address these issues would exclude stakeholders such as himself, Lamidi Apapa and groups such as the Trade Union Congress, TUC, wondering how such could translate to a lasting peace and progress of the party in the future.
“I and my supporters have done everything to ensure that we put the interests of the Labour Party before any personal interests and that is why I have insisted that we are ready to make any sacrifice for the party, a party some of us have invested our resources and our time.
“Sadly our gesture have not been reciprocated by certain forces who have decided to play the politics of exclusion. For example instead of calling for such meetings where everyone will air their grievances and perhaps get some of us to sheathe our swords and embrace a lasting peace, you see these people who are supposed to do the right thing exclude people like us.
“Can you imagine the Labour President calling a meeting without stakeholders like myself, Apapa and even the TUC? How then can there be peace. Then you look at the likes of Abure who tricked his way to make himself National Chairman go on to organise a fake convention deviating totally from the rulings of the court which called for an enlarged convention.
“Thankfully INEC didn’t observe the sham like convention and this is a plus for the Tinubu administration as the rule of law must always prevail.”
Okafor also stated that if the party were to follow the 2009 constitution of the party, then he and not Abure would be the substantive Labour Party Chairman as the constitution of 2009 states that in the absence of the National Chairman the Deputy National Chairman takes over.
“I was A.A Salaam’s deputy , so when I see all this charade I am amused as well as embarrassed but I am also hopeful that we will resolve this impasse and position the party for greatness.”
