THE Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Festus Keyamo, yesterday accused the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, of “riling up” their supporters.
Keyamo said on Channels Television’s Politics Today that he had petitioned the Department of State Services (DSS) to invite the leaders of the Labour Party (LP) over their rejection of Bola Tinubu’s declaration as President-elect.
Though official results show LP finishing third, Obi maintains that he was cheated out of victory, citing widespread violence, voter intimidation, and suppression before, during, and after the elections.
Following Tinubu’s victory, members of his camp urged the aggrieved parties to go to court.
“If I don’t say, ‘Go to court,’ what will I say?” Keyamo retorted. “Will I say, ‘Come’ let’s fight?’ What it means – if I don’t actually use that sentence – is ‘avail yourself of the machinery for addressing your grievance as provided by law.
“I’m only saying it in specific terms: ‘Go to court.’ If I don’t say, ‘Go to court,’ the next thing I will say is ‘Come, let’s fight.’ So, why are they using such phrases or such sentences in a derogatory manner?”
He argued that the law provided for legal redress, and that some people had successfully retrieved their mandates by going to court.
“It is only when it does not favour you – and that is what the Labour Party is doing now, and that is why I had to petition them to the DSS,” the minister said.
“There’s a buildup to something that they’re doing. The buildup they are doing is to rile the people up, pump them up, and then turn them against the judiciary.”
