By Ononye VC
The Labour Party (LP) has accused the minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, of misinforming the international community on the true political development in Nigeria.
The national chairman of the party, Julius Abure, said this while responding to Mohammed’s treason allegation against Mr Peter Obi and his vice presidential candidate, Dr Yusuf Datti.
News Band quoting the News Agency of Nigeria reports that during his official engagements with some international media organisations, Mohammed admonished Obi not to incite violence over the outcome of this year’s presidential election.
During the interactions with the media organisations, the minister said it was wrong for Obi in one breath to seek redress in court over the outcome of the polls and in another breadth incite violence.
“Obi and his vice, Datti Ahmed, cannot be threatening Nigerians that if the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is sworn in on May 29, it will be the end of democracy in Nigeria. This is treason. You cannot be inviting insurrection, and this is what they are doing.
“Obi’s statement is that of a desperate person; he is not the democrat that he claimed to be. A democrat should not believe in democracy only when he wins the election,” Mohammed said.
However, Abure berated the minister, saying that there is no basis for that admonition. He said Obi has sued for calm even when his supporters have been calling for a nationwide protest.
“Our presidential candidate is a peaceful and law-abiding person. Despite the fact that the election was provocatively rigged, he decided to be peaceful and toe the part of justice. This in spite of all pressures from our supporters to move into the street to protest the outcome of the general election and to reclaim the mandate freely given to our candidate by the people. He has decided to calm the nerves in other to give the judicial process a chance.
“The presidential candidate of the Labour Party is the only candidate whose campaign was issues based. In spite of all provocation, it was the Labour Party and its candidate that were attacked in Lagos, in Port Harcourt and all other states in the federation. But we have continued to promote peace,” Abure said.
He said that Mohammed’s admonition of Obi was done in bad fate, thus the minister should desist from such utterances.
He said: “It is our considered opinion that it is even the APC, through their spokespersons and all others who have been engaged in provocative utterances in other to cause chaos, that should be admonished. The admonition is largely for APC themselves, their spokespersons and their officials.”
