NUPENG Denies Involvement In NLC Election Impasse

The Nigeria Union of Pe
troleum and National Gas Workers (NUPENG) has denied any involvement in the  recent Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) delegates conference election impasse in Abuja.
In a press statement release by the union’s Secretary-General Comrade Isaac Aberare, on Wednesday said the union was never involved in the manipulation of ballot papers during the failed election held at the International Conference Centre Abuja  from February  11-13.
Aberare said the allegation made against his union was totally unfounded and a ploy to score a cheap political point against NUPENG.
The union’s scribe said the credentials committee was constituted to receive complaints or petitions from affiliate unions regarding allocation of delegates to the 11th Delegates Conference of the NLC.
He said the committee later met in Lagos and Abuja and addressed all the complains brought before it, stressing that the committee also agreed on the design of the ballot papers for the election. He said members of NUPENG were not  invdued in the processes that led to the printing of the election materials that necessitated the duplication of names  of some contestants in the ballot papers booklet.
Aberare explained that the selection of the printer, award of contract and the payment for the job wave done by the NLC’s secretariat while the printing and collation of the ballot papers and stapling them in a booklet form were handled by the printer and his staff, adding that members of the credentials committee were not involved in any way.
He said the union vehemently denies and rejects the unfounded allegation of being responsible for the failed NLC  delegates conference election, stressing that the union representative in the committee was not involved in the selection of printer, award of contract to print the ballot papers and payment for the job.
The NUPENG Secretary-General  alleged that one of NLC presidential contestants stood to gain more from the duplication names, adding that such candidate signed the NLC cheque  for the printing of the ballot papers.
Aberare alleged that the President, Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHUN) Comrade Ayuba Wabba, who was one of the NLC’s presidential candidates had shown desperation to hold the office even before the election.
He explained that the members of the committee were not allowed to officiate during the voting by the chairman of the committee, Dr Issa Fagge, Chairman Academci Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) who was of the opinion that the committee members were delegates and could be partisan.
However, the President of the Medical and Helath Workers Union of Nigeria (MHUN) Comrade Ayuba Wabba had after the botched delegates conference election accused members of NUPENG and National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) of being responsible for the disruption of the NLC’s election.

Philip Okparaji