Labour Party dismisses Keyamo’s demand for Obi, Datti’s arrest as baseless

The Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council has dismissed as baseless the petition filed by a spokesman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, demanding the arrest and prosecution of its party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and his running mate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, for allegedly making inflammatory statements.

Baba-Ahmed had on Wednesday insisted that the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, cannot be sworn in on May 29.

A few hours later, Keyamo in a petition addressed to the Department of State Service (DSS) urged the agency to arrest and prosecute the LP candidates for trying to set the country on fire.

The spokesman for LP PCC, Yunusa Tanko, who reacted to the call in a statement on Thursday night, insisted that Baba-Ahmed was a free citizen with freedom of expression.

He noted that the statement did not in any way amount to insurrection or treason and maintained that the February 25 presidential election was rigged.

The statement read: “Keyamo is just making baseless accusations. He’s a known rabble-rouser who doesn’t want to lose political relevance before his paymaster. He is a political paperweight, who has achieved nothing as a minister except … to rile up the polity on social media.

“Datti is a free citizen of this country and entitled to his fundamental right of Freedom of Expression. He never called for insurrection or any act envisaging treason.

“The fact that Keyamo talked about healing means Nigeria is sick. That means he recognised that the February 25 presidential election which announced his principal as the President-elect and the March 18 governorship and state assembly polls were marred with rigging, high-level violence, voter suppression and intimidation.”

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