Nigeria Labour Congress held its National Delegates conference yesterday, which resulted in crisis as participants failed to elect a new president to succeed Abdulwahed Omar.
The election was initially progressing smoothly until some discrepancies were noted in the ballot papers.
The observation led to allegations that resulted in fisticuffs and throwing of chairs at each other by some of the delegates at the International Conference Centre, the venue of the event in Abuja.
Journalists at the venue gathered that some of the delegates observed that the ballot papers were deliberately printed to facilitate the rigging of the election in favour of one of the candidates.
The three 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 delegates said the ballot papers, had Wabba’s name in 3 places and Ajaero in 2 places. Other ballot papers which did not have Ajaeros name on them also had no serial numbers.
The supporting delegates from Igwe’s constituency, NUPENG, were reported to have called attention to the discrepancies in the ballot papers.
When the argument over the issue worsen, some of the delegates loyal to either Wabba or Ajaero, started throwing chairs at each other, thereby causing pandemonium at the venue. Some others seized and destroyed the ballot boxes.
Wabba seemed to have a upper hand of being elected the next President of the congress until Tuesday when Igwe, who is also the NUPENG President, stepped down and gave his support to Ajaero.
With the current outcome of the delegates conference, the NLC appears to be heading towards a major division.
Findings reveal that MHWUN, the NUEE and NUPENG contributed N423m, N320m and N159m, respectively to the Labour congress between 2011 and June 2014.
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