NLC Election: NLC delegates exchange blows, destroy ballot boxes.

The 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.
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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.
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