The Kogi State Labour Party has criticised the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s refusal to allow access to the Confluence Stadium in Lokoja just 24 hours before its presidential mega event scheduled for Tuesday, December 13th, 2022.
Addressing media on Monday, Hon. Suleiman Abdul Ahmed, Kogi State Chairman of the Labour Party, who highlighted that the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, was slated to campaign in Lokoja on Tuesday, condemned the Kogi State Government’s conduct as wicked and anti-democratic.
Ahmed stressed that the party had written to the Kogi State Government multiple times, only to be rejected at the last minute of their principal’s visit.
Despite the frustration of the state government, he says the party is determined to ensure that the campaign goes forward as planned.
Ahmed emphasized that the Labour Party is out to free the people from the chains of poverty and mismanagement imposed by the current APC government.
While urging followers not to be discouraged by the current situation, Ahmed decried the extensive damage of Labour Party billboards in Kogi State by thugs suspected of being loyal to the ruling APC.
Explaining further, Ahmed said: “If they had denied them the opportunity of using that stadium to campaign, I am not sure they would be in office today. The truth is that some people put up characters that are strange. You go to so many states, you will find campaign billboards and posters. In Kogi State, there is a law, just for you to erect a campaign billboard, you must pay heavily.
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“The reason the government put up these policies is to ensure that credible candidates do not win elections, and that will not work. The people are tired of the bad leadership of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Kogi State and Nigeria in general. So denying people the ability to use facilities is not the way out. The people will surely vote for candidates that are credible.
“Nobody has a monopoly on violence. We are Obidients. No matter what happens, the campaign will be held tomorrow. Even though it is inside the forest. Money has never been the problem. They made several efforts to discourage us. They even tripled the stadium money just to frustrate us from using the facilities. They are doing this deliberately at the eleventh hour so that the campaign will not hold. The people in charge of the stadium said the order came from the top for us not to have access to use the stadium.”
The LP chairman, on the other hand, denied media allegations that there is a faction inside the Labour Party, saying that they are growing stronger on a daily basis and are poised to take over leadership in Nigeria.
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He said: “Mischief makers are scared of the rising political profile of the Labour Party in Kogi State, so they are eager to see how they can divide the party. We also know that there are people who are paid by the incumbent.”
“People who have ruled this state and ruined it. people who for so many years have not been paying salaries; even when they try to pay, they will pay it in percentages; people who have also made up their minds that the state should go into retrogression, instead of progress. They already know that the people will reject them at the poll, all that is paramount to them is to cause disunity in the party,” he added.
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