The Labour Party (LP) has issued a severe warning to people in positions of power who are reportedly contemplating the illegal arrest of its Presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi.
The LP’s National Youth Leader, Kennedy Ahanotu, provided this warning late yesterday in Abuja.
Ahanotu’s statement came in response to calls from a Presidential Media Aide, Bayo Onanuga, who has been advocating for Obi’s arrest on the basis that he is allegedly the brains behind calls for a national protest against bad governance.
Ahanotu highlighted that any attempt to arrest Obi on fabricated allegations would be not only illegal, but also very harmful to Nigeria’s political climate.
He said: “We wish to dissociate our hero of democracy, Mr Peter Obi, from any form of allegation from Bayo Onanuga’s wonderful government and therefore state categorically clear that any attempt to unlawfully and illegally arrest Mr Peter Obi will truly and sincerely be an affront on Nigerian citizens who believes that a better Nigeria is Possible.
“It is important to state categorically clear that Mr Peter Obi is the most peaceful Nigerian politician alive today who, despite the manipulation of his clear electoral victory in the 2023 presidential election, had asked his supporters, who are mostly the youths of my generation not to engage in any form of protest or agitation.
“It must be noted that it could have only taken a statement from Peter Obi in that instance for Nigerians to flood that collation centre in Abuja to occupy.
“It must be recalled that it was in this same country that a former president made an inciting statement of making the country ungovernable if he was not elected; eventually, he was not elected, and indeed, people were massacred, and yet that person was never arrested in 2011.
“It was also in this country that the current president incited his supporters in the last election to grab his political victory by all means, including fighting for it as power is not served in alarcarte; of course without recourse we saw the compliance in lagos state and many other states where APC were thoroughly defeated by the Labour Party.”
