Labour Has Not Asked Saraki To Resign

Members of the Nigerian organized labour have asked the Nigerian press not to bring labour into the political disagreement between the Senate President and the All Progressives Congress APC leadership who are bent on removing him.

The labour leaders who made this known to newsmen said it was wrong for the Nigerian press to be used by the APC leadership to foster their plans to remove the Senate President from office saying that such kind of politics must be avoided because the organized labour is not an apparatus that will be employed for the purpose of politicking. It said labour has its own problems which must not be compounded with another round of avoidable politicking.

Members of the Nigerian labour who spoke to our correspondents in reaction to news reports that the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress have called on the Senate President to resign as a result of the ongoing trial at the Code of Conduct Bureau said it will be preposterous for such calls to be made when the trial has not been concluded. A member of the Nigerian labour who craved anonymity said the reports of a major Nigerian news media which was published recently were the handiwork of the APC media which believes they can put the Senate President under pressure to resign by making such reports. He wondered why somebody can be asked to resign for a crime he said he never committed. “How can he be asked to resign just because he was accused by the CCB. If the President or an APC loyalist is accused or taken to court on a spurious allegation will he be asked to resign?” the major labour union activist queried.

Other members of the organised labour who spoke to our correspondents said the APC must allow justice to run its full course without using other means outside the law to pile unnecessary pressure on the Senate or its leadership. It decried the resort to blackmail by the APC leadership stressing that it is rather destroying the image of the country than showing any form of commitment to build it.

According to one of the persons that spoke to our correspondent but who craved anonymity, “Our so called leaders must understand that Nigeria comes first and the image of the country must be protected no matter what. This attitude of trying to pull down the Senate president at all cost may ricochet and the country will become worse off for it” he urged the Nigerian media to remain objective in its reportage of the crisis and avoid been bark dogs for some people who do not want the good of the country.

Meanwhile a nongovernmental organization United Against Corruption UAC has asked the Code of Conduct Tribunal to show that it is impartial by inviting politicians close to the Presidency in its bid to correct some of the anomalies it has noticed in the assets declaration of political office holders. The group in a press statement signed by its National President Barr. Kingsley Frank said it was wrong that the Bureau will be involved in selective prosecution while there are glaring cases of corruption by those close to the powers that be. The statement said it is either the bureau is incompetent to take on corruption or is merely playing to the gallery.