The Labour Party (LP) has said that they are not working for the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2027 general election in Nigeria.
LP in a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh on Friday also accused the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and others of falsehood as well as demarketing them to favour rival political parties.
“It has become imperative for the leadership of the Labour Party to quickly respond to the handwork of our adversaries and those who want to desperately frustrate the leadership of our party at all cost,” Ifoh said.
Ifoh said recently, after the landmark court judgment affirming the leadership of Barrister Julius Abure as the LP national chairman, some persons including a former Nollywood actor, Kenneth Okonkwo and the acting Chairman of the NLC, Political Commission Prof. Theophilus Ndubuaku, have tried to push the narrative that the Labour Party under the leadership of Abure is working for the APC and that is why the Labour Party has been winning all its court cases.
“I must put it clear that this narrative is not only misleading and mischievous but also a calculated attempt to continue to distract, derail and also give the party leadership a bad name in order to be able to hang it,” Ifoh said.
“I must state clearly that the Labour Party has been and is still critical of APC more than NLC. We put it on records that the NLC in all its ramifications has failed the Nigerian workers.
“Today, Nigerian workers are oppressed, the economy is not working, there are unfair practices against workers, and nobody speaks for the oppressed workers in Nigeria, except the current leadership of the party. If there is any leadership of the party from inception that has been very critical of the government, it is the Abure leadership of Labour Party.”
Ifoh added that for the first time, the leadership of the party under Abure has been able to record unprecedented achievements.
He said today, they can boast that the Labour Party won majority of votes in the 2023 presidential election, produced a governor, 8 senators, 35 House of Representatives members and several other members of the House of Assembly across the country.
Ifoh stated that from the 2023 general election till now, Labour Party has been a very vibrant and strong opposition party to this present government.
He said of there is any opposition party that has been very critical of this government, it is the Abure led opposition LP.
“For any person to say that that leadership is working for APC led government, it can only be mischief carried too far and a calculated attempt to distract the leadership of the party,” he stated.
“If there is any organisation that is working for the current government in power, we can assume without hesitation that it is the NLC.
“This is because one would have thought that for a party that has achieved so much, that the NLC should have collaborated or worked closely with the party in order to achieve a more cohesive and stronger opposition to the government.
“It is therefore puzzling that NLC chose to embarked on actions and behaviors that have slowed down the prosperity of the party in all ramification.
“NLC without any justifiable reason has been fighting the party unduly by invading the offices of the party with hired thugs, attempted severally to forcefully take over the leadership of the party, continuing to embark on campaign of calumny against the leadership of the party, and has been ferociously demarketing the party at will.
“The NLC even went as far as masterminding a parallel group and leadership by setting up a transition committee.
“It is very clear that the NLC has been the bane of the Labour Party and it has consistently taken steps in ensuring that the party is stagnated.
“For reasons best known to them, the NLC motivated and ganged up with some of our leaders against the current leadership of the party, for which all of these actions are aimed at weakening and derailing the progress made by the party.
“So it is very clear that it is even the NLC that is working for the APC and for them to be accusing Labour Party of working for APC is ironical and laughable.”
