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The campaign convoy of Labour party’s Olumide Oworu has been attacked again in Surulere, Lagos state. Actor Tomiwa Tegbe who shared a video from the scene, said the attack occurred few minutes away from Bode Thomas, today, March 16.
It’s unclear the number of those injured in the attack. This is coming hours after Olumide revealed that he was attacked at Iponri area of same Surulere on Tuesday, March 14.
The Nigeria Labour Congress says the Labour Party belongs to it and plans to meet elected party candidates to discuss its programmes.
The NLC said it would continue to be involved in politics to bring matters surrounding the welfare of workers to the front burner of programmes and policies of government.
NLC president Joe Ajaero said this during courtesy visits to some unions in Lagos on Thursday.
The unions included National Union of Electricity Employees, National Union of Banks, Insurance, and Financial Institutions, and Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers.
Mr Ajaero said the labour movement owned the Labour Party.
According to him, the party has the ideology of the working class movement with its charter of workers’ demands.
“We have an era that we are entering: era of politics, and we will not shy away. The Nigeria Labour Congress will be involved in politics. We are already involved in politics. NLC has a political party: the Labour Party, and LP participated in the recent elections,” said Mr Ajaero.
He added;
“Nigeria must exist before we practise our unionism. Anybody, who emerges as the president of Nigeria will work with us, and the rights and privileges of the workers must be guaranteed. The current wage system, casualisation policy, and outsourcing are anti-worker; with such policies, we can’t be our brothers’ keepers.”
The labour leader encouraged union members to show interest in politics, saying,
“We have not been managing it by ourselves. We have been allowing people from outside to now answer LP.”
He urged members to continue enlightening workers in the country about the Labour Party.
“That is what we are going to impose on them. Even the ones that have emerged as senators or House of Representatives members, they must, as a necessity, meet with us and we will give them our programmes.
That is the whole essence of thinking of LP in the first place; so that their actions, inaction, and utterances will reflect the affairs of the labour movement, and there should be no pretences about it,” the NLC chief explained.
However, he pointed out that “we are not saying that people cannot belong to any party of their choice, but we have a party where whatever we discuss here, we take it there as workers.”
Mr Ajaero said, “Where, if we want new minimum wage, we take it to the people that represent us there; all these issues concern the workers, and we should no longer shy away from it.”
Barely 48 hours to the Presidential and National Assembly elections, the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party have lost scores of members to APC in the Federal Capital Territory.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the defectors were received into the fold of APC on Wednesday in Abuja.
The National Coordinator, National Mass Movement for Better Orientation, Dr Hawa Iyatu-Bagu, a frontline Tinubu support group, said the development was an indication of APC’s victory in the February 25 elections.
Iyatu-Bagu said that the organisation had been in touch with the defectors for a very long time, saying, ”today those that accepted the truth have decided to follow the winning team.
She said, “We have been going around canvassing for votes and most of them here are only the leaders because if all of them will be here, this place cannot contain them.
“So, we now ask their leaders and some of them to come here and make it public about their decision to dump PDP and LP and declare their readiness to vote for Tinubu and Shettima.
“With this development and what we have seen so far in the course of our campaigns across the nooks and crannies of Nigeria, Nigerians, especially the women are ready to vote for the duo.”
The coordinator also stated that the youths were ready to ensure the landslide victory of Tinubu, assuring the defectors of equal treatment.
According to her, the APC presidential candidate will reciprocate any gesture to be done to him with quality leadership.
Also speaking, the Deputy National Coordinator of NAMMBO, Ibrahim Umar, lauded the Tinubu support group for attracting the defectors into the fold of APC.
Umar, said that the chances of Tinubu winning the presidential election were very bright, adding that Nigerians were eager to vote for Tinubu and Shettima.
Earlier, Mr Titus Musa, former PDP Youth Leader in Gwarinpa Ward, Abuja Municipal Area Council, who led defectors said they decided to defect to APC to vote Tinubu.
He said;
This is due to his record of excellent service in Lagos and his contributions to national development.
We are convinced with the APC manifesto titled, the Message of Hope. APC is the way to go and Tinubu has something to offer Nigeria.
Members of the two majority parties in Nigeria, the Peoples Democratic Party and All Progressives Congress in Imo North Senatorial District of Imo State on Sunday collapsed their structures into the Labour Party and pledged their loyalty and support to its presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
No fewer than two thousand people joined the LP at a ceremony at Umuaro community in the Isiala Mbano Local Government Area of the state.
A former Deputy Chief of Staff to a former governor of the state, Chikwem Onuoha, said that the decision was reached after an investigation revealed that Obi was the best presidential material among other presidential candidates.
Onuoha, said that APC and PDP had misruled Nigeria for the past 23 years, adding that it was time Nigerians voted Obi to rescue the country.
The APC chieftain said, “Today, APC and PDP are dead in Okigwe zone. We have resolved to collapse our structures in the zone into the Labour Party and to work for the victory of Peter Obi. Peter Obi symbolises the hope of the ordinary people of Nigeria.
“Peter Obi is tested and trusted and he has the support of the people who vote during the election. Apart from Obi, we will vote LP all through. The Labour Party is for a mass movement. We are wiser and we want to take back our country.”
The President General of the Okigwe North Youth Progressives Forum, Chidinma Onyenagubo, said that his group was mobilising people to obtain their Permanent Voters Cards to vote for LP In 2023.