LP Faults NLC Appointment of Interim Chairman for Gombe

The Lamidi Apapa faction of the Labour Party has faulted the appointment of an interim chairman of the party in Gombe State by the Nigeria Labour Congress.

The faction of the party however, labeled the development as unacceptable.

Also, the Julius Abure faction disclosed that it was not aware of the development, adding that it already had a substantive state chairman in Gombe.

There has been a conflict between the NLC and the LP leadership recently, with the crisis escalating to the point where the NLC accused the LP National Chairman, Julius Abure, of running the affairs of the party as a sole administrator.

The NLC political commission, through its National Secretary, Chris Uyot, took charge and endorsed the erstwhile Gombe LP Chairman, Sani Abdulsalam, who was allegedly dismissed by the Julius Abure-led National Working Committee for anti-party activities.

Uyot announced that Abdulsalam would oversee the affairs of the party, pending the conduct of local government elections in the state.

A copy of the letter was forwarded to the Independent National Electoral Commission, Department of State Services, Gombe State Police Command and the Secretary to the Gombe State Government.

The letter partly read, “To whom it may concern. We bring you fraternal greetings from the NLC political commission. We write to communicate the appointment of Alhaji Sani Abdulsalam as interim Chairman of LP in Gombe.

“His appointment is for the period up till the conduct of local government elections in Gombe State. Thereafter, a more substantive state transition committee of the Labour Party in Gombe State will be constituted.

“While we look forward to your cooperation, please accept the renewed assurance of our highest esteem.”

Reacting, the spokesman for the Apapa faction, Abayomi Arabambi, disowned the arrangement, saying that NLC had no power to impose anybody on the party.

He said, “The NLC political commission is not a party. We intend to take very drastic constitutional action against them. Already, we have warned them not to disobey the constitution of our party. They are merely a pressure group.”