The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, says it has no plans to embark on any kind of action against the May 29th day of inauguration of a new government in Nigeria.
The NLC was reacting to what it called “a false publication making the rounds in the Social media issued in the name of Labour and Civil Society Front, LCSF.”
According to NLC, LCSF is a platform that was founded on the already existing understanding between trade unions and Civil Society Organisations in Nigeria that for our nation to make progress leadership accountability and subjection to the sovereign will is crucial”.
A statement signed by the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said the organised labour and Civil Society use the civic space to interrogate governance in all its ramifications and make it work for the majority and progress of the nation.
Ajaero says, “the said publication titled; if electoral justice is not delivered by May 29, Nigeria would be shut down is not only false but a mischief by its authors to drag the NLC and the trade union movement into their warped contrivance for purposes best known to their minds.
“Such statement was unknown to us and we can neither be associated to it nor partake of whatever its intentions are”, Ajaero said.
The NLC President said it was important that the public is alerted that labour and it partners have not concluded any plans anywhere to mobilise any of their affiliates and constituents including the masses, neither in Nigeria nor without for the purposes of embarking on any action after May 29 within the context outlined by the statement.
“We dissociate ourselves from its intents and mission and are dauntless to say that such publication is not from the LCSF”.
He said that the Conveners of the Labour and Civil Society Front remain Comrade Ambassador Nkoyo Toyo, Senator Shehu Sani and Olisa Agbakoba, SAN.
He said any publication that does not have their endorsement is false and can only be the handiwork of fifth columnists trying to use the organisation to mislead the public and create tension in the country.
“We however make bold to say that we shall continue to work in conjunction with other well-meaning organisations both within and without the Civil Society to use every lawful means to ensure that there is fairness and equity in the adjudicatory processes of the election tribunals.
“This is our common commitment and we do not want this avowal to be hijacked by purveyors of evil to foment trouble in the polity. Any group believing that it can use the name of the LCSF to spread falsehood should be prepared because we shall seek them out and expose them for what they are.
“We believe that the Judiciary is equal to the task before it and would demonstrate to those who have had their doubts and those who have sought to make a mockery of them that they remain the bastion of the conscience of the nation,” the NLC Prsident explained.
Ajaero assured Nigerians and that general public that the NLC would not encourage anything that would distract the “sacred and time honoured duties of their Lordships as they conduct the different sittings…”.
Confidence Okwuchi
