…calls on National Assembly, security agencies to intervene
Following violent attacks by suspected thugs of the All Progressives Congress on Igbo in Lagos at some registration centres for the collection of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVC), the Labour Party (LP) has called on the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to urgently declare a state of emergency in Lagos.
LP accused the Lagos State Government of “officially promoting” the hoodlums’ attacks on the Igbo in the state in order to prevent them from registering and obtained their PVCs for the 2023 general elections.
The party in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Abayomi Arabambi expressed shock at the development, which it described as the “official sponsorship of open terrorism” against the Igbo in Lagos trying to exercise their civic duty and constitutional responsibility.
The party alleged that due to the harassments and attacks, over 66 per cent of the Igbo in Lagos had been unable to register and obtain their PVC in the exercise that would “officially end very soon.”
The LP, therefore, “unequivocally hereby urge the President to, without delay, declare a state of emergency in Lagos State over this ongoing official electoral terrorism, treason, arson and political banditry because a stitch in time is said to save nine.”
It also called on the National Assembly to urgently intervene to stop the ongoing violence against the Igbo in Lagos over the voter registration and the collection of their PVCs.
The LP warned that if urgent action is not taken to halt the attacks on Igbo in Lagos, the Nigerian democracy may be seriously endangered.
“Labour Party hereby calls on the various security agencies to immediately intervene in this atrocious and highly criminal recklessness being prosecuted in Lagos State against the IGBOS,” the party added.
It also advised all Igbo in Lagos to remain resolute in registering and obtaining their PVCs.
The full text of the LP statement reads:
LABOUR PARTY CALLS ON PRESIDENT BUHARI TO DECLARE A STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LAGOS STATE OVER VIOLENT SUPPRESSION OF VOTERS BY APC THUGS AND LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT’S OFFICIAL DECLARATION OF TERRORISM AND WAR ON THE IGBOS
The attention of Labour Party has been drawn to the coordinated attacks launched by miscreants, misfits and political thugs loyal the APC-led administration of Mr Babajide Sanwoolu on Nigerian Citizens from the South-Eastern part of Nigeria in various part of Lagos State.
It is quite alarming and highly frightful that in today’s Nigeria , the Lagos State APC Government could officially promote and sponsor open terrorism on the Igbos to stop them from registering for and obtaining voters’ cards across many points in the State . The IGBOS are attacked and brutalized at the registration centers very heavily.
Most Igbos in the neighborhood of over 66% have up till now been unable to register and or obtain their PVCs, officially which is scheduled to end very soon . These are people who do pay taxes and do contribute largely to the economy of Lagos State.
The question is: why do the Igbos suddenly become targets for crude electoral terrorism in Lagos where they are Landlords, business owners and very highly productive workers ?
The Labour Party unequivocally hereby urge the President to, without delay, declare a state of emergency in Lagos State over this ongoing official electoral terrorism, treason, arson and political banditry because a stitch in time is said to save nine .
Meanwhile , it is so worrisome to note that the fresh and new Presidential Candidate of APC who meaningfully is from Lagos State promised to unite Nigeria .. Uummn ?. Is this how the APC presidential candidate intends to unite Nigeria? It is good it is being test – run from Lagos State and by his own APC platform in Government.
Nigerians are far much more very informed beyond the traditional and static political and electoral docility of the past . It is now obvious that the APC Government even at the Federal level is committed to dividing Nigeria on tribal basis as the public opinion now in retrospect review the various official Government actions of APC that have sustained the continual division of the people of Nigeria along tribal and religious boarders.
There is no reason justifiable and tenable to support this Government official rascality in Lagos State. It is the constitutional right of every resident in any part of Nigeria of voting age to vote or be voted for where they have been part of the State for six months in the least.It is not in doubt that certain areas in Lagos are fully in the larger majority occupied by the IGBOS , as owners of buildings with intact certificates of occupancy.
A very sizable number of residential and business properties have been sold to , and bought by IGBOS across Lagos State.
The Governor , the Government and the APC are currently desperately and recklessly egging the State towards social reverse scale of free and fair participatory democracy in a way that very dangerously threatens peace and security in Lagos State and Nigeria at large.
The undisputable fact remains that it’s only in various areas in Lagos State where the IGBOS are the majority residents that are the focus of terrorism of the electoral terrorists where crude and criminal attacks are sustained with a view to stop the IGBOS from receiving their PVC to ultimately render them effectively disenfranchised in the 2023 election.
Labour Party is hereby strongly and directly warning the Nigerian public of the deadly storm of disastrous political, social , economic and environmental paralysis that the ongoing activities of terror that is being officially kept gathering over the State .
Labour Party hereby calls on the various security agencies to immediately intervene in this atrocious and highly criminal recklessness being prosecuted in Lagos State against the IGBOS. If this political and electoral terrorism of the Lagos State and APC against the IGBOS remain unchallenged and unhindered , it may spell brazen murder of democracy in Nigeria.
The hearts of the APC Politicians that are corroded and troubled with a very large level of severe loss in their limited electoral confidence are now jittery enough to begin to resort to violence against the IGBOS as their major electoral challenge because of their extremely very informed and large population. In Lagos State , it is an understandable and undeniable fact that the Igbo population have a formidably loud voice in the electoral process in Lagos State .
This is why the now very empty Electoral Paper weights in the Lagos State APC are bent , even very criminally and very unconstitutionally, to forcefully and violently stop the IGBOS from receiving their PVCs, which is their legitimate right.
Every Nigerian is constitutionally free to reside and work in any part of Nigeria. Free to own businesses and properties thereat . There is no law in Lagos State that forbids the IGBOS from all of these . Again, the Constitution clearly allows all residents of voting age who are Nigerians to vote or be voted for in any part of the Nation. Why must the Lagos State APC Government visit terror on the IGBOS trying to obtain their PVC in Lagos State ?
The President and the Government of the Federation must now act with immediacy to stop the ongoing terror on voters in Lagos State . Any form of procrastination or indecisiveness by the Government of the Federal Republic would be seen once again as another indolence and gross insensitivity and incompetence of the Leadership of Governance in the Nation .
Every Nigerian has the inalienable right to be protected by the Government. This ongoing official rascality is gradually growing into becoming an evil by the Lagos State APC to run Lagos State into the abyss of deep irreversible political economic and social disaster. Of course, it is far very obvious that this would have a further attendant crisis across the Nation.
Labour Party also hereby calls on the National Assembly to become much more attentive and dutiful to intervene in the ongoing acts of political/electoral terrorism in Lagos State . It is a danger that could have an unpleasant consequences for the peace of the Nation even in the midst of the now crippling larger insecurity in the Country.
No one should be daft enough and be unpatriotic to try to or attempt to come up with an insulting and or tribalistic silly defence of this very primitive and undemocratic violence by the APC Government in Lagos State.
Governance of horse trading and complete closure of eyes to democracy and its fine principles has no place in today’s Nigeria. A Nation in which despair , loss of hope and unending insecurity is the order of the day should not be selfishly sent into additional avoidable crisis and chaos by the APC Government in Lagos State. The question about responsibility in the ongoing Political terrorism against the IGBOS in Lagos is squarely resting on the APC and its Government in Lagos State.
Labour Party asks the IGBOS to stay and remain very resolute in their struggle to receive their PVC as it is their constitutional due and right. The IGBOS are also advised to ensure that when they eventually secure the PVC , they must let their votes make very strong statement as they vote wisely for the best party of their choice.
Finally , Labour Party is so much inclined to share the pains of the IGBOS who are now target of violent attack in Lagos State and the APC led administration in Lagos and Nigeria must take note that Nigeria’s governance is not their exclusive preserve nor their birthright
Comrade Abayomi Arabambi
National Publicity Secretary
