The National Delegates Conference of the
Nigeria Labour Congress ended in crisis on
Thursday as participants failed to elect a
new president to succeed Abdulwahed Omar.
The election was progressing smoothly until
some discrepancies were observed in the ballot
papers.
The discovery led to allegations that
culminated in fisticuffs and throwing of chairs
at each other by some of the delegates at the
International Conference Centre, the venue of
the conference in Abuja.
One of our correspondents gathered that some
of the delegates felt that the ballot papers
were deliberately printed to facilitate the
rigging of the election in favour of one of the
candidates.
The candidates are the NLC current National
Treasurer, Ayuba Wabba; the Deputy
President, Joe Ajaero, and the President,
Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural
Gas Workers, Achese Igwe who later stepped
down.
Some of the ballot papers, according to some
of the delegates, had Wabba’s name in
three places and Ajaero in two places. Others
which did not have Ajaeros name on them
also had no serial numbers.
The delegates from Igwe’s constituency,
NUPENG, were said to have called attention
to the discrepancies in the ballot papers.
When the argument over the issue
degenerated, some of the delegates loyal to
either Wabba or Ajaero, started hauling
chairs at each other, thereby causing
pandemonium at the venue. Others seized and
destroyed the ballot boxes.
Wabba seemed to have a brighter chance of
being elected the next President of the
congress until Tuesday when Igwe, who is
also the NUPENG President, stepped down
and declared support for Ajaero.
Delegates loyal to Ajaero are of the view that
the organisers of the election may have
allowed deliberate errors in the ballot papers
to pave the way for the election of Wabba.
The leadership of the congress has however
called a meeting of the National
Administrative Council to decide on how to
solve the crisis.
Our correspondent, who was at the Labour
House Headquarters of the NLC in Abuja,
observed that the meeting was ongoing as of
the time of filing this report.
With the outcome of the delegates conference,
the NLC appears to be heading for a major
division.
Investigations reveal that MHWUN, the NUEE
and NUPENG contributed N423m, N320m
and N159m, respectively to the congress
between 2011 and June 2014.

Source: Punchonline