From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Northern youths under the umbrella of Arewa Youth Assembly (AYA) have called for the arrest of the President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) , Comrade Joe Ajaero over alleged plans to scuttle the inauguration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the substantive President of the country.
The youths also accused him of working with IPOB with an intent to actualise the Presidential ambition of Labour Party’s (LP) Peter Obi
Spokesperson of the
Arewa Youth Assembly, Ali Muhammad made the allegations during a press conference at the Arewa House in Kaduna on Thursday.
He said, “I welcome you all to this press briefing on the state of the nation. We have taken our stand to always add our voice on burning issues of national interest and we can’t allow anyone to wants to use his personal interest to cause havoc in our nation.
“Notable security agencies have been petitioned to effect the immediate arrest of the President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) , Comrade Joe Ajaero over his alleged plot to scuttle the inauguration of President-elect, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“It was further alleged that Ajaero is working with the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), to actualise the presidential bid of Mr Peter Obi of Labour Patty and not Tinubu who was declared winner of the election”.
Arewa Youth Assembly also accused Ajaero of using the Nigeria Labour Congress as a platform to achieve his Biafra agenda.
“We also accused him of corruption, alleging that himself and his secretary general received one bullet proof SUV car each worth N1billion to sabotage the planned workers strike against the cashless policy of the apex Bank.
“We regretted that this is the first time in the history of NLC that two people from one ethnic group are occupying the office of President (Joe Ajaero from Imo state and Secretary General, Emmanuel Ugboaja from Abia) at the same time, hence it is easy for them to prosecute the Biafra agenda.
“In a petition, we have drawn the attention of the security agencies to open threats by Ajaero to scuttle the inauguration of President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
“Another important issue is ,apart from threatening the judges handling the election petition tribunal, Ajaero has gone ahead to sabotage institutions of state in the name of strikes.
“Ajaero showed his ethnic card by inviting Peter Obi to the last May Day celebration in Abuja without extending same to the leadership of other political parties and even the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who is the number one labourer of the nation.
“We regretted that Ajaero is using the Igbo dominated NLC to sabotage the economy of the country in the guise of strikes.
“The disruption of flights to Imo State on Wednesday where an airline reportedly lost N700m is only a rehearsal of what Ajaero and IPOB plan to do to Nigeria”s economy ahead of Tinubu’s inauguration.
”The invasion of Lagos and Imo airports by IPOB fundamentalists masquerading as NLC is only but the beginning of what Ajaero is hatching to stop Tinubu from taking oath of office on May 29. He has assumed the position of the judges in the case and that is a dangerous precedent.
“We therefore called on security agencies to immediately arrest Ajaero and his Co-conspirators before the plunge the nation to avoidable national crisis.” Arewa youth Spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, Comrade Ajaero had in his May Day speech hit hard on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), accusing the Commission of flawed general elections.
The speech read in part, “The just concluded general elections remain the most hotly contested in the history of electioneering in our country and the reasons are obvious. However, it also remains the most distorted, corrupted and abused. It marked a dangerous watershed in our political engagement as a people and as a nation. It brought with it huge opportunities for our nation to turn the corner and become great or to continue to dwell in the cesspit of underdevelopment.
“However, as has been demonstrated, INEC seems to have chosen the wrong path. A route that has perceptibly dashed the hopes of many Nigerians throwing them into despair and hopelessness destroying the rebounding belief that our nation can get it right once again. The patriotic fervour that preceded the election has never been witnessed in a long time in our country and all of us had believed that INEC was going to ride the crest of that wave to make history by following its promises but that was not to be. That fervour has dissipated and almost replaced with melancholy while the people rues a lost opportunity. The electoral umpire built our collective hope based on their pledge to abide with the Electoral Laws and its own guidelines to provide a level playing ground for all the participants yet surprisingly it chose to do otherwise.
“We do not want to know who were declared as winners but we view it from the fact that the process was hugely flawed as there was a wide gap between what was expected within the ambit of the Law and morality and what was pronounced by INEC as the outcome. The process heavily contaminated the outcome and was therefore largely perceived as not being a reflection of the wishes of the electorate who had expectantly cast their votes at the different polling units across the nation.
“A willful subversion of the rules made to guide the elections and acts that may have intentionally frustrated the BVAS clearly questions and undermines the credibility of an election. To us, it was like INEC shot itself at the foot by the several guarantees it gave to our citizens and deciding to shift the goal post when the match had already started. Compliance with its own Guidelines and the electoral act would have secured the integrity of the election and its outcomes irrespective of the nature of the individuals that emerged victorious”.