The Labour Party has said the recent statement by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on grabbing power in 2023 may lead to widespread violence.
Chief Spokesperson of the Labour Party, LP, presidential campaign council, Yunusa Tanko, in an issued statement yesterday, cautioned that Tinubu’s speech in a London restaurant is capable of propelling massive violence in the 2023 general elections.
It said that the APC presidential candidate made the assertion in a London restaurant while addressing his supporters in the Diaspora and the video is in the public domain.
Tanko made this disclosure in an interview with journalists in Abuja after carefully examining Tinubu’s speech where he declared that political power should be “grabbed and you run away with it. “This coming from a presidential candidate is too unpresidential; how can a man who wants to govern over N200m Nigerians use such words”, he wondered.
The LP Chief Spokesman further said, “I don’t think it’s appropriate to go to a civilised clime and start talking about power grabbing, in a UK restaurant for that matter; and I very much doubt whether the APC presidential candidate has even bothered to sign the peace accord for 2003 polls. If he has done it, then his vituperations on grabbing power come what may is uncalled for because this is capable of making his supporters have that mindset on using violence to deliver votes.
“Elections must be conducted in a violence-free environment, and Tinubu saying things like this is really unpalatable barely three months to the presidential election. It’s saddening to hear one of the most experienced politicians in Nigeria talking in this manner and people were clapping and hailing him”.
