The Labour Party and the ruling All Progressives Congress have disagreed over an alleged plan by the present administration to begin a clampdown on opposition members.
While the LP claimed the clampdown may follow the victory of President Bola Tinubu at the Supreme Court, the APC said there was no truth in the allegation.
The National Chairman of the LP, Julius Abure, had claimed that his party received intelligence that the President may be coming after him, the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi and some chieftains, following his victory at the Supreme Court.
Abure’s claim came after a seven-man panel of the apex court unanimously dismissed the appeals of the LP candidate and his Peoples Democratic Party counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, and affirmed Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 presidential poll.
He said, “It is pertinent to put on record that we have it on very good authority that the government may have marked some Labour Party’s key leaders, myself especially and our leader and presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, in particular for vilification, to suppress the party, suffocate our team, and our goal of a new Nigeria.
“The planned persecution, intimidation, suppression and harassment of our leaders using security agencies and all other government institutions will be defended.
“We are therefore calling on all our members and the Obidient family to be vigilant and brace for the challenges ahead. The struggle for a New Nigeria will certainly be tortuous and hard.
“We are also calling on the international community to rise to the occasion to defend democracy in Nigeria.”
But reacting, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the ruling party, Duro Meseko, told The PUNCH that there was no iota of truth in the claim.
Meseko said, “It is not true. Virtually everybody in Nigeria know that President Tinubu is not that kind of person. Some of the people in Tinubu’s government today like the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, were among those insulting him and all that. Yet, he still brought them on board. That’s for you to know the kind of heart he has.
“It is therefore satanic and mischievous for the Labour Party and some other critics to still be nursing such thoughts about the President. As a statesman, the President has done his best over time to bring everybody together. That is also reflected in his government of national unity.
“Even this so-called Labour Party was invited on board but most of their people were busy criticizing him, saying he wanted to put their people in government so the party wouldn’t pursue their case in court again and all that. I am saying this confidently that there is no iota of truth in what the LP chairman is saying.”
