The leadership of the Labour Party has condemned a statement by its former vice presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Datti Baba-Ahmed, who said President Bola Tinubu’s government is “questionably constitutional.”
The rebuttal, signed by the National Publicity Secretary of LP, Dr Arabambi Abayomi, was issued to newsmen on Saturday in Kaduna by the party’s National Secretary, Umar Ibrahim.
Abayomi said the LP viewed the comment as undemocratic, therefore dissociating itself from any surreptitious action capable of inciting Nigerians against the present government.
PUNCH Online reports that Baba-Ahmed called on President Bola Tinubu to give up contesting in the 2027 presidential election, advising that his time is up as Nigerians would demand for true democracy in 2027.
He said the party approached the 2023 general elections with all the determination to make a difference in the way Nigeria was run.
The scribe also recalled that the party had sponsored candidates it believed at the time could win elections.
He also recalled that the result of the 2023 presidential election didn’t go its way, and the party challenged the result up to the Supreme Court and lost.
“For the interest and peace of the nation, the Labour Party accepted the judgment of the Supreme Court.
“This was not because we were pleased but because of the finality of the Supreme Court’s judgment. The party has since moved on,” he said.
Abayomi lamented that the party was astonished by the illegal and unconstitutional meeting called by Gov. Alex Otti of Abia and Peter Obi on April 9 in Abuja.
He said that at the meeting, Baba-Ahmed still referred to the 2023 presidential election as “questionably constitutional” even with the legitimacy conferred on Tinubu’s government by the Supreme Court.
Abayomi also alleged that Baba-Ahmed, in an interview with national television, said, “The appointments they are making are fake and illegal.
“The paraphernalia of government they are enjoying, destroying our country, spending our money, is only for a little time.”
He, therefore, said for them at the party, such a statement was clearly inciting and a call for mass action against a constituted authority.
Abayomi said, “We think there should be a limit to whipping up the public sentiments against a legitimate government.”