With 1, 695 votes, the President of Medical and Health Workers Union (MHWU), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, was on Saturday morning, declared the new president of the congress, emerging after a keenly contested and prolonged election, which started early Thursday morning and ended around 1 a.m. on Saturday.
However, his opponent in the election, the General Secretary, Nigeria Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), Comrade Joe Ajaero, who scored 1, 140 votes as well as Comrades Issa Aremu and Igwe Achese, who contested for deputy presidents, gathered have concluded to form a parallel NLC.
The Ajaero group, which contested the election under the name Restoration Group and earlier rejected the results of the elections after Comrade Wabba was declared winner, has now scheduled a special delegate conference in Lagos on Saturday, March 21, for the purpose of electing a new leadership.
At about 1 a.m on Saturday morning, the Returning Officer, Dangiwar Aliyu, who is also the pioneer General Secretary of the NLC, read the results and declared Wabba as the winner of the election.
He announced that Wabba polled 1, 695 votes from the 3, 115 votes cast, to defeat his main rival, Ajaero who pulled 1, 140 votes.
3119 delegates from 43 affiliate unions of the NLC were accredited for the election.
For the three positions of deputy presidents, the president of the National Union of Road Transport Union (NURTW), Comrade Najeem Yasin scored 1, 818; President of Nigeria Civil Service Union (NCSU), Comrade Kiri Mohammed pulled 1, 610 votes; and the General Secretary of NASU, Comrade Peters Adeyemi scored 1, 604, to emerged as the three deputy presidents.
Comrade Achese scored 1, 283, while Comrade Issa Aremu pulled 1, 112 votes; and lost out in their bid to become deputy presidents.
But the Ajaero group claimed to have rejected the outcome of the elections because the entire process was faulty just like the aborted delegate conference, which was disrupted by the same group.
The group, which held an emergency meeting following the announcement of Comrade Wabba as winner, accused the former president of NLC, Comrade Abdulwahed Omar, of doing everything possible to ensure that his preferred candidate emerged winner.
Speaking after their meeting, Ajaero said that special delegates’ conferences are recognised by the constitution of the congress, pointing out that they want to prove to Nigerians that they have the capacity to organise credible elections.
He stated that they have already gotten across to majority of the unions to participate in the special delegates’ conference, adding that all the 43 industrial unions will be allocated 10 delegates each as provided for by the constitution of the congress.
According to him, 17 unions were present at the meeting where the decision to hold the special delegates conference was taken, while six others unions apologised.
However, in a swift reaction through a statement issued last night by the NLC and signed by its General Secretary, Comrade Peter Ozo-Eson, the NLC warned those involved in the move to form a parallel congress not to allow themselves to be used as agents of destabilisation
The statement read: “It has been brought to the attention of the Nigeria Labour Congress that a group of individuals driven by inordinate ambition and vainglory have scheduled a so-called delegates’ conference in Lagos in the coming weeks.
“Affiliate unions of the Nigeria Labour Congress are hereby advised to ignore any invitation to such a conference, as the 11th Delegates Conference was concluded in the early hours of Saturday, March, 14, 2015 following the successful election of the national executives of the congress in a free, fair and credible elections under the watchful eyes of unions, delegates, invited guests, veterans and members of the media.
“The processes leading to the elections and the elections themselves were manifestly transparent, incontestable and unimpeachable. All the contestants and their delegates voluntary lent and submitted themselves to the electioneering/voting processes.
“At no time, from the commencement of the accreditation of delegates to the voting, counting of votes and announcement of results was any a complaint raised or lodged.
“Congress therefore finds it necessary to advise that individuals should resist the temptation to be used as agents of factionalisation or destabilisation of the Congress. The Congress is bigger than any of us.”
Comrades Ajaero, Achese and Aremu, who spoke to journalists few minutes before the results of the election were announced, had all rejected the elections, with the three of them walking out of Eagle Square venue of the election few minutes before results were announced, alleging that the election was not transparent.
Earlier, the NLC appeared prepared and determined to avoid the hitch that led to the botched delegates’ conference and disrupted the earlier elections, a development that was evident in the presence of hundreds of security personnel from the SSS, Police and NSCDC, who were deployed for the election.
The ballot papers used in the re-scheduled elections were different from the ones used during the botched conference; as names of all the candidates for a particular position were printed on the same page of ballot paper.
During the last botched election, names of candidates were printed on different ballot papers, which led to allegations that names of some candidates appeared more than one in a booklet.
After a rigorous accreditation of delegates, officials and journalists from Thursday morning till late afternoon, voting started around 5:25pm and ended by 3:13a.m on Friday, with the counting started around 11 a.m on Friday and running till Saturday, after the sorting of the ballot papers.
But Comrade Aremu said he was very disappointed with the way the election was conducted, alleging that it was marred with irregularities.
Also, Achese said he was not satisfied with the process, adding: “I have never seen where NLC election took place for two days and two nights. The process is not transparent. It is not acceptable to us. We are going to challenge it.”
But one of the delegates, who preferred to remain anonymous said that the losers were not being sincere and only wanted to destroy the congress.
The delegate, who said that he actually voted for Ajaero, said it would be very unfortunate if the losers rejected the election’s results, because an unbiased person will know that the election was free and fair.
While analysing the results, he said the winner, Comrade Wabba aligned with many trade unions that have very high number of delegates, such as NASU, NCSU, NURTW, NUT, while his union MHWUN has the highest number of delegates of 526.
Tags
Business