The Labour Party (LP) has cautioned the All Progressives Congress (APC) over increasing attacks on its supporters, saying that the ruling party does not have monopoly of violence.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Comrade Arabambi Abayomi in a statement on Monday said that the APC has officially adopted violent attacks on LP’s presidential candidate support groups across the states of the nation.
The party lamented that despite the earlier position by the Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari, that the LP flag bearer is not known beyond the South East, the APC “has been caught up by retributive justice to be frustrated into violence by the share strong, heavy and frightening huge crowd of loyal willing supporters of Peter right in the centre of his self – deluded political safe – zone.”
The statement reads in part, “Our party attention was drawn to a mercilessly co-ordinated assault and attacked by the military wing of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Katsina State Chapter on the peace-loving Obedient political movement supporters of the Mr Peter Gregory Obi, the incoming President of the federal republic of Nigeria come May 29th 2022.
“It is fast getting very much clearer that the APC has officially adopted violent attacks on LP’s Presidential Candidate support group across the States of the Nation. LP finds this trend quite unacceptable and condemn the growing terrorism of APC in virtually some APC controlled State in the Nation.
“Once again, LP has to re-emphasise the fact that no one political party has a monopoly of crude and organized violence.
It is an irony that a sitting Governor who has earlier so pompously claimed that Peter Obi is not known beyond the South East has been caught up by retributive justice to be frustrated into violence by the share strong, heavy and frightening huge crowd of loyal willing supporters of Peter right in the centre of his self – deluded political safe – zone.”
While calling for the redeployment of the State Commissioner of police, Abayomi in the statement called on security agencies to be up to task ahead of the poll.
He stressed that they must not continue to appear helpless in the face of attacks on its supporters.
The statement further said that “With the ongoing level of insecurity to properties and lives of the people in KATSINA as a result of banditry, mass killings, very many rampant and audacious cases of kidnappings in this KATSINA State, it is quite disheartening that rather than try to confront these large scale terrors, the Government of KATSINA chose to ignore insurgency only to get busy in using weapons of destruction against the harmless and peaceful Obedient supporters.
“The APC that has technically surrendered to the Insurgents as it opted for begging and negotiating with the terror groups finds it so appropriate to visit innocent Citizens with official terror as it fails woefully at protecting the lives and properties of the Katsina State residents who live in daily fear of terrorists.
“How could this very clueless and incompetent Govt of APC against the ever growing band of kidnappers and bandits win, when the arms bought with tax payers money are simply shared to APC party thugs and hoodlums.
“The APC Federal and State Govts are cancers in the seat of Governance everywhere they are ruling. In Katsina State at the moment for a Citizen to travel from one town or village to another is a matter of life and death because of the danger posed by the terrorists who appear to have tactical cover and support from the APC Govts .
“This increasing violence being employed by the APC Governments in the Nation is so much smelling of political conspiracy within the rank and file of APC and it confirms the wide suspicion that APC covers, sustains and indirectly empower terror in the Nation.
“It is well that APC has chosen to from this early show its intentions to grow political violence in the country ahead of the 2023 elections which translates to mean that the SECURITY AGENCIES should not begin to think that excuses and or alibis would do when the come eventually become the come and the chips are down.”
The party therefore stressed that “that there is fast approaching a time when LP will not be able to control the anger of its loyal supporters who are always the direct victims of the APC organized violence.
“Notwithstanding the crude ways and means of APC , it is quite clearly and loudly shown by the Voting Public that the people have finally and irreversibly decided to effect a change in Aso Rock in the coming election and intimidations and harassment can not help APC in anyway. Nigeria and Nigerians are tired of a crippled Governance by the APC and are are now fully prepared to take their Nation back from APC .
“Though it may be unbearable for the dying and decaying APC not to be too much receptive of the current political reality that Peter Obi/ Datti has fully become a political tsunami in view of the fact that this their Presidential Candidacy is now fully supported by over 33million registered voters , a figure that daily increases which can before the next election cross the figure of 60 million.
Because this clear massive support is unprecedented and never seen in the past in Nigeria, and such support cuts across religion and tribe, the Obi/ Datti phenomenon right now directly points to its making a political history new and unseen before in Nigeria.”
