From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
Ahead of the 2023 general elections, LP Enugu West Senatorial District candidate, Uchenna Ekwe, has condemned what it called a coward attempt to frighten party members during a meeting in Enugu State.
Ekwe said that no amount of gunfire or bombs could quiet a people’s agenda and resolve which time has come.
According to the Labour Party candidate, no amount of deceit or intimidation will be able to dissuade Enugu State residents from casting their votes in mass for the party in the coming elections.
He said this in a statement on Wednesday while reacting to the recent invasion by gunmen of LP members having a meeting in their party office in Awgu, headquarters of the Awgu council area.
“The cowardly attempt to scare the members of the Labour Party in Enugu State shows that the sponsors of the recent attacks are already at their wit’s end and totally frustrated,” Ekwe said.
According to him, “bullets and cache of bombs can silence a peoples’ agenda and resolve which time have come. The people of Enugu State have since made up their minds to vote massively for the Labour Party in the 2023 general election and no amount of subterfuge and intimidation can stop this moving train.
“This attack clearly establishes three things for us. First, the fear of the effervescent popularity of the Labour Party is now the beginning of panic for members of the ruling political class in Enugu State as they are already feeling the irrepressible resolve by Ndi Enugu that the wind of transformational leadership sweeping across the length and breadth of Nigeria must not leave Enugu State behind. This huge renewal of faith in transformational governance among Nigerians and Ndi Enugu is on the wings of the general acceptance of the servant-leadership appeal of Mr Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party and Hon Chijioke Edeoga, the governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Enugu State.
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Ekwe added that the attack and the futile attempt to hide it under the Biafran agitation betrays the source of the violence in different parts of the Southeast as being politically motivated.
“It is unfortunate and tragic that politicians have hijacked the Biafran agitation as cannon fodder for political violence and criminality. While it is understandable for a party that has lost relevance and touch with the people to panic at the sight of a sweeping defeat, it is totally unacceptable for such a sinking ship to resort to violence and mayhem against the people who have simply had enough of their streak of bad governance mixed with arrogance and impunity.
“It is on the strength of this resolve by Ndi Enugu that we warn the Peoples Democratic Party which has the dubious honour of importing and institutionalising violence in the political culture of Enugu State to cease and desist from further testing the resolve of Ndi Enugu. According to an Igbo proverb: ‘No one knows on which head a stone thrown into the market square will land’. We believe that a word is enough for the wise.
He further called on the Police and other security agencies to immediately conduct investigations into the “devilish attacks against members of Labour Party in different parts of Enugu State to identify the culprits and their sponsors and bring them to justice. No one and no political party is above the law.
“We also call on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to take note of this brazen maelstrom against the pillars of electoral democracy in Enugu State. This attack is what it is – a brazen rape of democratic values. It would be apt for INEC to work with the Nigeria Police to make the perpetrators of the blood-chilling attacks against Labour Party members in Enugu State guinea pigs of the budding Electoral Offences Commission law currently being shaped into law.
“Finally, we urge the people of Awgu, Aninri and Oji River Federal Constituency and indeed the millions of ‘Obidient’ supporters in Enugu West Senatorial District and Enugu State generally to remain calm, courageous, and committed to our collective resolve to rescue Enugu State from the vicious grips of those who co-habit with the devil and demons in the ministry of stealing, killing and destruction. One with God is majority!” he said.