Labour ministry not aware of factional NLC – Minister

The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Sen. Joe Ikenya, has said that the ministry was not aware of the existence of a fractional leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress.

Ikenya said that the ministry participated in the election that that produced the current NLC leadership led by Mr. Ayuba Wabba in Abuja last Saturday.

The election result is being contested by a group of prominent labour leaders who announced a factional leadership of the congress led by the General Secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees, Mr. Joseph Ajaero.

He said the Labour ministry had not received any letter from the other faction of the foremost labour centre in the country.

However, he said the ministry would not want to be entangled in an internal matter of the NLC and its affiliate unions.

The minister spoke while receiving the newly elected officers of the NLC led by the President, Ayuba Wabba, in Abuja on Friday.

He said, “For us in the ministry, we want to tell you that you did your election; actually our ministry also supervised it.

“We have not heard and we have not got any letter from anywhere in respect of any other NLC and it was in the knowledge of every Nigerian that there was an election here in Abuja and our ministry participated in it.

 “Therefore we will not run into any controversy because that is internal; the ministry is not part of it and we know that you will sort yourselves out because there is a process and I know that all of you know that process.

Similarly, the Director General of the State Security Services, Mr. Ekpeyonjg Ita, who also hosted the NLC delegation stated that the NLC election was transparently conducted and was indeed free and fair.