NLC – LP face off: Adamawa LP meets stakeholders

By Christiana Ekpa

A section of the leadership of the Adamawa State chapter of the Labour Party, (LP) met on Saturday with the organised labour and other stakeholders in an attempt to mend a lingering rift within the party’s leadership.
The state executive committee of the party, chaired by Christopher Nicholas, had called the meeting, which was ignored by a section of the leadership led by the local government chairmen of the party in the state.
The splinter group passed a vote of no confidence in the Christopher Nicholas-led committee last week and was not represented at the stakeholders meeting on Saturday in Labour House, Yola.
The chairman of the party’s state executive committee, addressing newsmen after the meeting, said it was not solely about mediating the apparent rift in the party but also about meeting with party elders and other stakeholders on the health of the party and its preparation for ward, local government and state congresses of the party.
On the refusal of the aggrieved local government chairmen to attend the meeting, Nicholas said: “Our party remains one. We are just seeking one full house devoid of any rancour; otherwise, the local government chairmen in question cannot, in all honesty, be taken seriously.”
Nasiru Babale of the NUC/TUC/Joint Negotiating Council of the state, who represented the organised labour at the meeting, said the aggrieved members should have seized the opportunity to attend the stakeholder meeting.
Babale, who is the immediate past TUC chairman of the state, faulted the way the local government chapter chairmen met at a hotel to announce the sack of the Christopher Nicholas executive committee, urging them to follow due process.
“As far as organised labour is concerned, there is no issue in the state Labour Party again,” Babale said.