Election: NLC delegates trade punches, destroy ballot boxes

National Delegates Conference of the Nigeria Labour Congress ended in crisis on
Thursday as participants failed to elect a new president to succeed Abdulwahed
Omar.

The election was progressing smoothly until some discrepancies were observed in the
ballot papers.
The discovery led to allegations that culminated in fisticuffs and throwing of chairs
at each other by some of the delegates at the International Conference Centre, the
venue of the conference in Abuja.
One of our correspondents gathered that some of the delegates felt that the ballot
papers were deliberately printed to facilitate the rigging of the election in favour of
one of the candidates.
The 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 of the ballot papers, according to some of the delegates, had Wabba’s name
in three places and Ajaero in two places. Others which did not have Ajaeros
name on them also   had no serial numbers.
The delegates from Igwe’s constituency, NUPENG, were said to have called
attention to the discrepancies in the ballot papers.
When the argument over the issue degenerated, some of the delegates loyal to
either Wabba or Ajaero, started hauling chairs at each other, thereby causing
pandemonium at the venue. Others seized and destroyed   the ballot boxes.
Wabba seemed to have a brighter chance of being elected the next President of the
congress until Tuesday when Igwe, who is also the NUPENG President, stepped
down and declared support for Ajaero.
Delegates loyal to Ajaero are of the view that the organisers of the election may
have allowed deliberate errors in the ballot papers to pave the way for the election
of Wabba.
The leadership of the congress has however called a meeting of the National
Administrative Council   to decide on how to solve the crisis.
Our correspondent, who was at the Labour House Headquarters of the NLC in
Abuja, observed that the meeting was ongoing as of the time of filing this report.
With the outcome of the delegates conference, the NLC appears to be heading for a
major division.
Investigations reveal that MHWUN, the NUEE and NUPENG contributed N423m,
N320m   and N159m, respectively to the congress between 2011 and June 2014.