• Explains why Igbo were appointed coordinators for Lagos, Sokoto
Barely 24 hours after, Labour Party, on Thursday, promised to review the list of members of its Presidential Campaign Council and make necessary corrections.
The party was reacting to criticisms generated by the appointment of a former Army spokesperson, Major General John Enenche (retd.), into the Presidential Advisory Council of its PCC.
Enenche, a former Director of Defence Information, who made the 1,234-man Obi-Datti campaign team as a member of the PAC from the North-Central, had claimed that the killing of #EndSARS protesters in 2020 at Lekki Toll Gate, Lagos was false.
The ex-General had reportedly claimed that the Instagram live footage of DJ Switch, which showed #EndSARS protesters dying from bullets of soldiers from Nigerian Army was photoshopped.
The video of his claims had surfaced again on Twitter nearly two years after the gruesome incident where men in military uniform invaded the venue of the protest in Lekki and shot at people.
The PUNCH reported that controversy had trailed the list of Presidential Campaign Team of Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, with allegation of marginalisation of other ethnic groups in favour of the South-East.
For instance, critics faulted the choice of appointment of Igbo as state coordinators for Lagos and Sokoto states.
Also, a United States-based Professor and social commentator, Farooq Kperogi, had faulted the Labour Party campaign list, saying the party was not different from the All Progressives Congress and Peoples Democratic Party.
Kperogi said, “The inclusion of Enenche on Obi’s campaign list is significant because the core of Obi’s youthful supporters who’re engaged because they’re enraged are drawn from #EndSARS agitators for whom the cover-up of the massacre of protesters in Lekki is a sore point.
“To put a denier of the mass massacre of their comrades in the campaign council of a candidate they support and campaign for is both insensitive and disrespectful.
“And why does a campaign that is fuelled by a desire for difference need nearly 1,300 people to sit in a council? That’s unwieldy. How is it different from the APC and PDP? In fact, APC and PDP are better. APC’s initial list was just 422 and PDP’s was 520.”
But responding to the allegation, chief spokesperson for the LP Presidential Campaign Council, Dr. Tanko Yunusa, told The PUNCH in Abuja on Thursday that the party had taken cognisance of the observations and would make necessary adjustments.
Speaking on the choice of Igbo as state coordinators for Lagos and Sokoto, Yunusa said many people complaining about the list never showed interest.
He said, “The truth is: how many of them showed interest in all what we are doing? Is it not now they are trying to show interest?
“Many of them did not show interest. But the truth is that we are happy now that they are showing interest, they are giving us consultancy and we will take corrections. Let them bring all the names, we will accommodate them.
“All of the issues that have been raised, we will take care of it. We are a listening party and we will do the right thing.
“Every observation is being taken care of and as a listening party that is ready to take over power, it is just like presenting ourselves for scrutiny to the public, and the public who (is) driving us has spoken, so we will deal with the matter internally and accordingly.”
