Patrick, Lagos
The National Executive Council of the Labour Party has deferred its proposed 3rd National Convention which was formerly due to hold on December 19th, 2013.
The party in a communiqué jointly signed by its National Chairman, Chief Dan Nwanyanwu and National Secretary, Alhaji Abdulkadir Salam, at the end of its 17th NEC session held in Akure, the Ondo State capital on Wednesday, said “the NEC-in-session noted that it would be apt for the date of the National Convention to be extended by not more than nine months from December 19, 2013 when the 3rd Convention would have been due, based on the need to build a stronger and more virile Labour Party at all levels of its organisation.”
The party however resolved to conduct ward, local government and state congresses across the country in the intervening period of 9-months from December 19 2013, stating that all occupants of offices, who ordinarily would have gone to congresses and convention for fresh mandates, shall continue to be in such offices they now occupy until such a time when new elections are held for fresh mandate.
The party also congratulated its candidate, in the Anambra State Governorship election held on the 16th of November, 2013, Dr Ifeanyi Ubah, “for his courage, commitment and gallantry in carrying the party’s flag. By this act he has elevated the fortune of the party in Anambra State.”
While assuring him of the resolve of the party to watch with keen interest the Anambra scenario for further developments, the party urged Ubah not to be discouraged by the current situation which emanated from the election.
The party also urged members of the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU), to look at the possibilities of ending its lingering strike action “for the sake of the children of the poor in the public schools whose interest the said strike was intended to safeguard.”
It expressed sadness over the untimely death of a prominent labour leader and member of the Labour Party, Comrade Festus Iyayi and senior members of Ondo State government, who lost their lives in the ill-fated Associated Airline mishap in Lagos.
On the privatisation of the power sector, the party welcomes the deregulation of the power sector and said it hopes that it would lead to a new dawn of efficiency and energy availability, while also demanding that effective regulatory mechanisms be put in place to ensure that private monopoly does not emerge to deprive the ordinary Nigerian from enjoying affordable electricity supply.
