Festus Osifo Emerges as New President of TUC
Comrade Festus Osifo, the President of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has emerged as the new President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC).
Comrade Osifo emerged at the end of the 12th Triennial National Delegates’ Conference of TUC held in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Comrade Osifo, according the returning officer of the election at the conference, Shehu Mohammed, polled 688 votes out of a total of 728 delegates to defeat his opponent, Comrade Mrs Oyikan Olasanoye who polled 18 votes, with 22 votes invalidated.
National Record had reported how the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) and nine others had approached the Lagos Division of the National Industrial Court and obtained an interlocutory injunction stopping it from holding the conference until the determination of a substantive suit.
The aggrieved affiliates alleged that the TUC had breached a resolution or an agreement entered into at its last delegates conference on which affiliate to produce the next president of the centre.
National Record had also reported how ASSBIFI and nine other affiliates had written a petition to the Inspector General of Police requesting it to stop the conference from holding because of the court order.
However, the leadership of the centre went ahead claiming to have obtained a counter order from an Abuja court giving it the go-ahead to hold the conference.
At Tuesday’s sitting of the court, the presiding judge in the matter, Justice R. H. Gwandu, reaffirmed the restraining order while also admitting PENGASSAN and the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) as parties to the suit.
The suit was adjourned to 4th August, 2022 for hearing.
NAN reports that in his acceptance speech, Osifo vowed to fight for the welfare of the masses as well as the protection of the interest of every Nigerian worker.
He commended the past leaders of TUC for laying “a solid foundation on which the body thrives and vowed to sustain the vision. Osifo also promised to carry everyone along in his quest for a greater TUC while also pledging to “initiate a platform to placate all aggrieved comrades.
Earlier, Comrade Quadri Olaleye, outgone TUC President, in his valedictory address, commended all members for their support, while calling on the incumbent to ensure peace for the union to move forward.
“I want to seize this opportunity to remind you that election in the trade union movement is not a-do-or-die.
“There is never a loser, always remember that we are comrades, and that an injury to one is an injury to all,” Comrade Quadri said.
Also speaking, Dr Peace Obiajulu, the pioneer president of the TUC, called on members of the TUC to ensure that election does not divide the unity of workers.
She said that organised labour must come together to use their numerical strength to redirect the cause of the working class in Nigeria in particular and by extension the downtrodden in the country.
