The Labour Party has faulted Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka’s comment accusing the party of attempting to deceive Nigerians into believing that its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, won the February 25 election.
On Wednesday, Soyinka reportedly said LP knew that Obi came third in the keenly contested poll but kept playing ‘Gbajue’ (to force a lie) on Nigerians, especially the youthful population.
But in a statement on Thursday, LP’s National Publicity Secretary Obiora Ifoh accused the Nobel Laureate of exhibiting dual character. He said Soyinka’s statement was not expected of someone who is highly revered as a “detribalised” statesman.
“We will not allege selective amnesia as the reason for Soyinka’s wrong prognosis but we would have expected him to be a statesman which we thought he was by remaining on the side of caution and not exhibiting the dual character of someone who may be blinded by some chauvinistic tendencies,” the statement read.
“However we are aware that Soyinka resides in Lagos State and he was in Nigeria on February 25 when elections were held in Nigeria. He watched probably with glee when a certain individual in Lagos warned non-indigenes to vote for a particular political party or risk being deported to their place of birth, and he never condemned it.
“He was there where ballot boxes were snatched by thugs in a polling booth right in front of his house, he didn’t condemn it. We are still looking for where he came out to condemn the unprovoked attacks on our supporters in Lagos by members of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, during the last elections.”
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