June 12: LP faction hails Tinubu, backs Emefiele’s arrest

The Lamidi Apapa-led faction of the Labour Party on Monday congratulated President Bola Tinubu for sustaining June 12 as Democracy Day in honour of the democratic sacrifice of late Chief MKO Abiola.

This was even as the faction applauded the Directorate of State Service for going after the Governor of Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele, shortly after his suspension by the president.
A statement issued by the spokesman of the faction, Dr Abayomi Arabambi, called on Nigerians to continue to support the good intentions of the Federal Government and also give condemnation where necessary.

He said, “We congratulate Nigerians for witnessing the first democracy day under the present administration of President Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. We salute your excellency’s doggedness and commitment to ensuring that our democracy is sustained along the religious, economic and political lines. Labour Party identifies with various reforms going on in the country, the declaration of June 12 as a National Holiday and so many other reforms ongoing.

“Chief MKO ABIOLA’s slogan was Hope 93, and Now we have ‘A renewed Hope 2023’ Even though both were on the platform of Muslim-Muslim tickets but the variation precedent was the zeal and commitment of both MKO and PBAT to a new Nigeria which is not a symptom of religion. We called on the people to continue to support the good intentions of the government, while also condemning rightly when necessary.”

Continuing, Arabambi frowned at the recent condemnation of the Julius Abure-led executives for criticising the president over the suspension of the CBN governor.

While justifying the action, the LP faction stated that any government official who abuses his office as Emefiele did by running for the seat of the president and inflicting hardship on Nigeria through his ill-timed new Naira redesign policy should be made to face the full wrath of the law.
“Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to the Peter Obi-Abure-led faction of the Labour Party Spokesperson, Obiorah Ifoh where he irresponsibly claimed that the suspension approved by the president is unconstitutional, vindictive and not in good taste. Peter Obi’s faction out of deliberate falsehood and ignorance even accused the new Chief of Staff to the President Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila of complicity for not speaking up since he is now with the Government.

“We were all living witnesses to the travails of Nigerians to the different anti-masses policies rolled out to Nigerians by the embattled CBN Governor, and as a responsible Party, we will not just sit down and condemn a lawful inquiry into the years of the inglorious and corrupt reign of Emefiele, but rather called on the relevant security agencies to properly look into the action and deeds of the ex-governor. It is on records that Peter Obi and Julius Abure criminally appropriated to themselves an illegal labour party campaign fund to the tune of N12b and $15m the fund they had access to during the inglorious days of the grossly incompetent stints of the suspended CBN Governor Mr Godwin Emefiele through the deliberate affliction of pain and agony on the generality of Nigerians.

“The Obiorah statements are laced with tribalism, egocentrism and nepotism, and what this tells us is that all the rumours that Emefiele was part of those that sponsored the Presidential bid of Peter Obi may be true after all. How do we explain that people with sane minds will be supporting somebody that kept millions of Nigerians on their knees for almost nine years with records of impunity, poorly-executed fiscal and monetary policies? For the first time in Nigeria’s history, a sitting Central Bank Governor was seen dabbling into politics, yet Obiorah never sees the reason why he must be investigated and prosecuted if found guilty.

“Also during his tenure, we were informed how DSS accused Emefiele of terrorism financing. He was accused of funding the activities of the proscribed pro-Biafra group, IPOB and others. As a party, we will not support any acts of witch hunting, nor support any move to suppress good moves at getting to the root of Nigeria’s economic crisis under Emefiele. We, therefore, called on DSS and other security agencies to distinctly carry out their investigation workout any hindrance and inform the public of their findings as Nigerians are waiting patiently to know why they were so impoverished under the policy reel out by Emefiele,” he stated.

When contacted for a reaction, LP National Publicity, Obiora Ifoh, declined to speak much on the matter.

“We don’t want to be reacting to anything today. The moment we speak, we are giving them undue publicity. Virtually everybody knows they are impostors by now based on what they keep saying. We are interested in speaking on issues of national importance and not reacting to these miscreants.

“But in this case, it is like giving them oxygen,” Ifoh said.



Punch