By Gideon Njoku
More facts have emerged on the sabotage visited on the Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi and Dr Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed respectively during the launch of the Party’s Presidential Campaign on October 28, 2022.
The All Progressives Congress, APC, Government in the State, apparently, in connivance with the powers-that-be, threw in every obstacle available to them to make sure the launch flopped.
Considering the scores of thousands of Obidients who received Obi the first time he visited Lafia, capital of the State, not a few people were shocked at the not too appreciable crowd at the Campaign flag-off. In deed, APC even mocked the LP over it.
But facts have emerged that the Governor of the State, Abdullahi Sule, pulled all stops to abort the success.
This was revealed by Dr. Doyin Okupe, the Director General of the LP Presidential Campaign Council during an interview on Channels Television.
Okupe reeled out the obstacles thrown their way.
For instance, began Okupe, the permission for the landing of the helicopter used by Obi to fly to Lafia for the launch, was delayed till the last minute. Meaning that even on the eve of the launch, Obi was not sure he would make it to Lafia.
Secondly, Okupe lamented, 48 hours to the D-day, the LP had not secured a venue for the launch. He said the party had chosen any of three venues. And had sent a 22-man advance team for final preparations. But shockingly, when they called the team to confirm the venue, they were told that no venue had been approved for the event, yet, by the State Government.
But more was to come.
On the eve of the launch, Governor Sule, inexplicably imposed a curfew on the State. That was clearly to stop LP supporters from travelling to Lafia for the launch.
But there was worse.
Okupe revealed that Nasarawa had never observed sanitation day in the past seven years. But on the day of the Campaign launch, it did.
Governor Sule suddenly imposed Sanitation exercise on that Saturday, and banned movement till 10am.
A combination of all these, especially, the curfew and the sanitation exercise, had a devastating blow on the launch.
“Our supporters from parts of the State could not travel to Lafia,” Okupe lamented.
Noted one top Government official in Lafia: “This is politics at its most bitter. My Governor didn’t need to descend this low. It is executive recklessness. How these people pray to Allah and sleep at night beats me.”
