An Abuja-based human rights lawyer, Pelumi Olajengbesi, has slammed the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, for mocking the Peoples Democratic Party, Labour Party, and their supporters.
Premium Politics reported that Tinubu during a mega rally in Osun State on Tuesday ahead of the July 16 governorship election labelled PDP and LP as “mushroom parties” and urged people not to vote for their candidates come Saturday.
Speaking further, Tinubu stated that the party and its supporters will “labour till they die”, such a sentence is a “curse” in the Nigerian context.
Reacting in a statement made available to Premium Politics, the rights activist noted that “You can’t monopolise Osun like Lagos.”
He argued that the unsavoury statement of the former governor of Lagos State shows that he is not a democrat as his followers are portraying him to be because divergent views and the right to aspire to be voted are some cardinal tenets of democracy anywhere in the world.
Olajengbesi described Tinubu’s comment as uncharitable and provocative, adding that it shows his intolerance for opponents and this tendency would heighten if peradventure he becomes Nigeria’s President next year.
“Going by his statement, the APC presidential candidate might go as far as strangulating the remaining 17 political parties to death if he ever gets into office,” Olajengbesi stressed.
Speaking further, Olajengbesi, who is the Principal Officer ofLaw Corridor, an Abuja-based law firm, said, “The statement of APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, in Osun State on Tuesday showed that he is not a true democrat as his supporters paint him to be. It is partisanship taken too far.
“Tinubu’s statements are uncharitable and unexpected of APC National Leader or even a presidential candidate. It goes to show that if elected, Tinubu will strike out other parties into non-existence as he did in Lagos where his party has monopolised for 23 unbroken years now.
“Nobody and no registered party by the IndependentNational Electoral Commission should be disparaged for contesting in an election. The people of Osun should be free to elect whoever they want whether Oyetola, PDP’s Ademola Adeleke, Labour Party’s Lasun Yusuf, or any other candidate of their choice come July 16.
“Tinubu’s statement in Osun is tantamount to voters’ intimidation and the former Lagos governor should apologise for such indecent comment. We are in a democracy, not an autocracy.”
