LP reacts to sacking of opposition governors, says people in power too vicious

The dismissal of three opposition governors including the recent one of Plateau State, Governor Caleb Mutfwang by the Court of Appeal has prompted a response from the Labour Party (LP).

In a ruling on Sunday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was directed by a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, presided over by Justice Elphreda Williams-Dawodu, to revoke the certificate of return granted to Mutfwang and provide a new one to APC candidate Nentawe Goshwe, who the court deemed to be the legitimate victor of the March 18 governorship election.

In three days, Mutfwang became the third opposition governor to be dismissed by the Court of Appeal. 

In response to the removal of the three opposition governors, Yunusa Tanko, the primary spokesman for the LP Campaign Organisation, concluded that the rulings may have been prompted by certain 'vicious' individuals in the executive branch of government who were using the judiciary as a tool to seize the states.

In an interview with Punch, he stated that if the ruling party is not challenged, they will entirely eliminate other political parties from the political landscape of the country.  

Yunusa Tanko noted, “As I said earlier, these particular set of people in power are vicious politicians. I repeat the word vicious again for emphasis.

“Gradually, we are beginning to witness completely captured states where all the institutions have already been bought, intimidated or blackmailed to do the bidding of the present political party and the government in power.

“There is no hanky-panky about it. They are clear on what they want to do and they are putting our democracy in power.

“It is now left for us to really challenge these particular people otherwise they are going to take us completely to the cleaners. And they don’t care how, when, and where they do it as long as it favours them. This is the danger.

“Now the electorates are being discouraged from going out to vote for candidates of their choice knowing that the mandate can be snatched. They are already in control of the state apparatus.

“We had a similar situation at a point when the PDP was in power. These particular people in power will be referencing how virtually everybody was joining the PDP (during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration) then.

“There was no clear ideology and that was what gave birth to the APC conglomerate. But in this case, it is a different matter entirely. These people in power are just too vicious.”