Comrade Julius Abure, the national chairman of the Labour Party, has expressed outrage at what he claims to be a planned attack against LP members in various federation-wide states.
On Thursday, Abure made this statement while hosting a group of interfaith clerics in audience at the party's national secretariat in Abuja.
He said, “We have had attacks in Ebonyi, Enugu, Lagos and elsewhere. First they said we had no structure, now they have seen that the people are our structure, they have plans to attack our members across the country.
“Only yesterday, after our meeting we had planned to cry out to Nigerians to pray for us. Today, the Bishops and the Sheikhs came to pray for us, it is a confirmation that 2023 is the year of the Lord.”
Abure noted that many people argue that campaigns should not delve into the past but that it would be out of place not to because “You cannot treat an ailment without proper diagnosis. You cannot talk about solutions without looking at the challenges.
“In the area of security for instance it is the failure of leadership, people are kidnapped and phone calls are made yet no arrest.
“In the economy, we are suffering from a double-digit inflation, and people are hungry.
“For us in the Labour Party, we believe Nigeria had what it takes to ensure that no Nigerian goes to bed hungry even if we can’t build skyscrapers, we can grow food to feed ourselves.”
The LP National Chairman further said, “The APC and the PDP are owned by money bags who sit in the comfort of their homes and decide who becomes what politically.
“We formed the LP to bring succour to Nigerians. For us in Labour Party we are ready to provide leadership, we are prepared to take Nigeria to where it ought to be.
“I say without fear of contradiction that the LP has the best presidential candidate in the person of Mr. Peter Obi.
“We dare say no amount of tear gas, attacks and intimidation can stop an idea whose time has come.
“We must look at the age and the health of candidates because we cannot handover a Sick country to sick people.
“People who have started rushing to hospitals outside the country even before campaigns start proper.
“The Labour Party has what it takes to change the reality not just the perception. For many decades, the political oligarchy in this country have been using religious and ethnic divisions to divide us.
“When Buhari took over in 2015 the number of out of school children was between 7-10 million but today, 7 years after this number has jumped to over 20 million with most of them in the North. This is not about religion or ethnicity, it is about taking back our country.”
Earlier, one of the leaders of the delegation representing the Christain faith, Archbishop Leonard Kawas explained that their visit was first to pray for the party and it’s leadership and pledge their support.
He said, “We are not fake bishops, we are real. We are here to pray for the party and the leadership, we are just Representatives of millions of members across Nigeria.”
His Muslim counterpart, Sheikh Murtala Mahmoud said, “We want Nigerians to try a new person, Peter Obi is new. We want unity between Christians and Muslims in the interest of Nigeria that is why we are here.”