- Says Claims In Viral Video Ridiculous
By Kolawole Ojebisi
The Labour Party (LP) has denied joining forces with President Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) towards realizing his reelection bid in the 2027 general elections.
The party stressed that it is not collapsing its structure to pave the way for the emergence of Tinubu as claimed in a viral video on social media
The rebuttal came as a response to a claim in a video by an Abuja based lawyer and self-acclaimed activist, Deji Adeyanju, that the leadership of the LP has been bought over by Tinubu
Mr Obiora Ifoh, National Publicity Secretary, LP said this in a statement on Friday in Abuja.
According to Ifoh, the party has on several occasions debunked the allegations that it has an understanding with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to collaborate in the 2027 general election.
“As a matter of fact, the Labour Party is the most visible opposition party as at today and our National Chairman, Barrister Abure is the leading voice in the opposition camp, and has been most critical of the present government.
“After the 2023 general election, it continued to interrogate the system’s failure and has been very visible playing the role of the opposition, continuously critiquing the policies, proffering solutions and advising the government.
“Recently, the party under the able leadership of Mr Julius Abure came up with series of programmes, including the creation of the Electoral Reform Committee.
“With it, we hope to enthrone a credible, fair and transparent process, leading to the selection of leadership in the country, Labour Party being a major victim in the 2023 general election,” he stated.
Ifoh said the party has created a Political Education Committee to reorient citizens on the need to have positive behavioural changes towards politics in Nigeria.
He also said the party has become the first party in Nigeria to attempt to deepen participatory democracy by the introduction of e-membership registration with thousands of people already subscribing.
”All these efforts to reposition the party, for someone to be demarketing such a party in such an unguarded and callous manner, is most ridiculous and unfortunate.
“We are, therefore. challenging Deji Adeyanju and any other person to come up with facts and proof that either the party leadership or Mr Abure intends to work for President Bola Tinubu or his party, the APC in 2027.
” Adeyanju’s assertion which is presently trending globally has caused the Labour Party enormous harm and we are demanding that he refrains from causing the party further harm.
“As a political party, we view Deji Adeyanju’s now-viral comments as a criminal defamation, a clearly motivated ploy to ridicule our hard-earned reputation.
“We are, therefore, calling on Mr Adeyanju to without delay provide facts and evidence to prove that the Labour Party has been ‘bought’ over by President Tinubu.
“He also has a choice to withdraw his ill assertions and apologize to the leadership and millions of members of the Labour Party for the great harm he has caused the party,” he stated.
