APC’s Protest Against EU Report, Embarrassing – LP

Labour Party (LP) has described as embarrassing the protests by members of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) at the premises of the European Union Mission in Abuja.

LP in a statement by acting National Publicity Secretary Obiora Ifoh, said the protest showed how antithetical the APC is to truth as well as measures that will grow and strengthen Nigeria’s democracy.

“The protesters were demanding that the EU should withdraw its final report on Nigeria’s 2023 general election held on 25 February and 18 March 2023, because as they claimed, the report was capable of setting the country on fire,” the party stated.

It described the action of the APC as “counter-intuitive, awkward and very difficult to comprehend,” noting that “if after the electoral brigandage of the APC in cahoot with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on February 25, Nigeria did not go on fire because of the non-violence disposition of our standard bearer, Peter Obi, it is now that APC thinks the stark truth coming from an unbiased independent body like the EU will set Nigeria on fire.”

The LP said it expected the APC to appreciate the European Union for her continued contributions to the growth of democracy in the country through its needs assessment missions as well as financial, technical and logistical support, which the 94-page report underscores.

The party added that Nigerians expected the APC-led Federal Government to borrow a leave from late President Umaru Yar’Adua, who in 2007, after winning the presidential election perceived by international observers as not sufficiently credible, accepted to make amends by promising to reform the electoral system.

“It was the reform of the electoral system started by Yar’Adua and continued by his successor President Goodluck Jonathan after his death that facilitated the victory of an opposition APC defeating an incumbent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015.

“It’s the height of ingratitude and lack of sense of history for the same APC to be protesting against the same EU that had never failed to issue its observation reports after every election since 1999, and shouldn’t have looked away at the worst and most egregiously conducted elections in the history of Nigeria,” the LP stated.

It challenged the ruling party to discredit the EU report point by point, adding that where it fails to do that, “they should accept the fact that they are in possession of a stolen mandate, a reality known to all and sundry.

“It’s not difficult to understand why such an unbiased forthright report is so discomforting to the ruling party to the extent of hiring protesters because no thief likes to see or hear from anybody coming with evidence that will expose him.

“What Nigeria and indeed lovers of democracy globally should do, is to appreciate the EU for its persistent role in growing democratic principles in our land and refusing to be frustrated despite the anti-democratic attitude of our politicians and leaders.”