The Labour Party has expressed its opposition to alleged scheming by the immediate past Governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, to return to the party and disassociated itself completely from such moves.

The National Chairman of the Party, Dr Mike Omotosho, in a statement on Wednesday, pointed out that that the sole purpose of Dr. Mimiko’s re-approach to the Labour Party was to use the workers’ party to launder his sagging political image.

The party leader alleged that Mimiko’s ill-fated adventure was intended to destabilize the current gains being made by workers to reclaim and reposition the Labour Party.

He stated: “Nigerians would recall that Dr. Mimiko abandoned the Labour Party for the People’s Democratic Party a few days to Labour Party’s October 2015 National Convention.

“Such a treachery and betrayal of a party that gave the former Governor succour in the darkest hour of his political career especially as manifest in his two-term victory on the ticket of Labour Party is to say the least, cheap and callous. It also revealed paucity of knowledge of the philosophy of the Labour Party as a peoples’ rooted party and dearth of class consciousness on his part”, Omotosho added.

Noting that the Labour Party is an offspring of the working class family and was midwifed by the labour movement as a political vehicle for Nigerian workers and the Nigerian poor, he pointed out the party was founded on the cornerstone of ideological clarity and class consciousness to promote and defend the political cum socio-economic interest of the working people.

The Labour Party also alleged that political journey persons like the former Governor of Ondo had in the past taken advantage of the leadership challenges in the Labour Party to satisfy their fantasies for political opportunism, adding that now all that have changed.

Promising to work in alliance with its civil society partners and other patriotic Nigerians, the labour leader stated that members of the party were poised to fully reclaim the Labour Party and restore it as a model political institution that does not only epitomize the values of the working class family but also capable of contesting for power with members of a failed political class, with whom the former Governor dines and wines.

“While the leadership of Congress continues to work to rebuild the Labour Party especially through the instrumentality of our Political Commission, we urge all workers and indeed genuine lovers of popular democracy to ignore the political theatrics of people like the former Governor of Ondo State.

“He has shown Nigerian workers that he cannot be trusted. The Labour Party is no longer a transit bus to strange political destinations particularly under the subterfuge of people like him”, Omotosho added.

In a related development, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) also categorically disown and condemn recent posturing and proclamations by some politicians in Ekiti State that they are the candidates of the Labour Party in the forthcoming governorship elections in Ekiti State.

Specifically, the organized labour group claimed that the Labour Party had no candidate in the July 14, 2018 governorship election in Ekiti State and urged INEC, workers and the Ekiti electorate not allow themselves to be hoodwinked by the antics of political impostors.

The party leader clarified further: “Furthermore, all political aspirants in the Labour Party are requested to deal only with the Screening Committee of the party. On no account should anyone engage in any form of financial transaction on issues related with the Labour Party with A. A. Salam and Julius Abure.

“Right now, the Labour Party is pre-occupied with strategic re-positioning aimed at re-energizing our capacity as a people for issue-based politics and ideologically driven political contestations.

“We urge politicians like the former Governor of Ondo State to stay clear of the new Labour Party because we are aware of their gimmicks to lure the Labour Party in the direction of other political parties with the hope of rehabilitating their dwindling political relevance. As they say “once bitten, twice shy”, Omotosho stated.