ABUJA – The Nigeria Labour Congress has urged all delegates to its rescheduled congress to commit themselves to a free, fair and peaceful election slated for Thursday, March 12.
Dr Peter Ozo-Eson, the General Secretary of the congress, made the appeal when he spoke with newsmen in Abuja.
It will be recalled that the elections conducted during the 11th National Delegates Conference on February 12 was disrupted as aggrieved parties hijacked and smashed ballot boxes.
Ozo-Eson said that the NLC took cognizance of the issues that led to the unfortunate incident in preparing for this election.
He said that adequate preparation in terms of security and logistics, among others, have been put in place to avoid such lapses.
“We have made appeals; we have held meetings; our veterans have held meetings with the candidates.
“We do hope that this time delegates are coming strictly to vote and to determine how the contestants will emerge in the various positions.
“So, we are hopeful that we will have peaceful and smooth elections against the background of last experience.
“We want to appeal to them, that they are the ones who have to decide the process and they should do so with open and clean mind.
“This is without any animosity or acrimon; they should be fully engaged in the process peacefully because winners will definitely emerge.
“ We have also put place tight security to guarantee that the election goes peacefully.”
Ozo-Eson urged the contestants to imbibe the spirit of sportsmanship during the election as only one could be a winner in positions where there are many candidates.
“Therefor, there must be a loser and I think that we must be ready to subject ourselves to the democratic process.
“Because the delegates are the ones to determine who they want and they should allow that process to take place seamlessly and even if you lose today, you can win tomorrow,” he said.
The secretary also urged all workers to collectively realise that what happened the last time was a huge deficit to the labour movement.
He said that the lapses in the electoral process set the labour movement several decades backwards with a dent to its image.
