Pelumi Olajengbesi, an activist and human rights lawyer has slammed the presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu for saying that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) will labour to death.
The legal practitioner based in Abuja also described the statement credited to a former Lagos governor, Bola Tinubu as uncharitable and provocative one.
Recall that Tinubu on Tuesday during a mega rally for Governor Gboyega Oyetola, the APC governorship candidate seeking reelection, said, “Think about your children and vote accordingly so you can see the future. Come out en masse. Don’t mind PDP and other mushroom parties — parties like Labour; they will labour till they die. God will not make you labourers.”
Olajengbesi via a statement made available to WITHIN NIGERIA said the statement credited to Tinubu shows his intolerance for opponent and this tendency would heighten if peradventure he becomes Nigeria’s President next year.
“Going by his statement, the APC presidential candidate might go as far as strangulating the remaining 17 political parties to death if he ever gets into office,” Olajengbesi added.
He argued that the unsavoury statement of the former governor of Lagos State shows that he is not a democrat as his followers are portraying him to be because divergent views and right to aspire to be voted are some cardinal tenets of democracy anywhere in the world.
Olajengbesi, who is the Principal Officer of Law Corridor, an Abuja-based law firm, said, “The statement of APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, in Osun State on Tuesday showed that he is not a true democrat as his supporters paint him to be. It is partisanship taken too far.
“Tinubu’s statements is uncharitable and unexpected of an APC National Leader or even a presidential candidate. It goes to show that if elected, Tinubu will strike out other parties into non-existence like he did in Lagos where his party has monopolised for 23 unbroken years now.
“Nobody and no registered party by the Independent National Electoral Commission should be disparaged for contesting in an election. The people of Osun should be free to elect whoever they want whether Oyetola, PDP’s Ademola Adeleke, Labour Party’s Lasun Yusuf, or any other candidate of their choice come July 16.
“Tinubu’s statement in Osun is tantamount to voters’ intimidation and the former Lagos governor should apologise for such indecent comment. We are in a democracy, not an autocracy.”
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