The Labour Party (LP), has accused the executive arm of the federal government led by President Bola Tinubu of unduly interfering in the activities of the legislature. It also accused the Senate, under the leadership of Goodwill Akpabio, of portraying the dictatorial inclination of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The opposition party stated this in its reaction to the removal of Borno South Senator, Ali Ndume as the majority whip of the Senate.
Darelasisionline.com gathered that Ndume was on Wednesday replaced with Ali Monguno as the Senate Majority Whip based on the request of the ruling APC. The APC, in the letter signed by its National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, accused Ndume of activism and putting out acts that aimed to destroy the ruling party. The move follows recent utterances by Ndume in which he said Tinubu is caged and that Nigeria is being led by kleptomaniacs.
However, LP in its reaction, through a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Obiorah Ifoh, said Ndume was removed because he dared to speak the truth to power. The party further described the removal of Ndume as an act of tyranny and an attempt to humiliate and intimidate Ndume. Ifoh accused the Tinubu government of weaponizing starvation against Nigerians and urged the citizens to resist the dictatorial tendencies of the current government.
The Labour Party spokesperson, said:
“The dimension this administration is taking is grave. Few months ago, Senator Abdul Ningi exposed the rot in the government where the Senate leadership and the executive collaborators allegedly padded the budget. That got him suspended and intimidated out of his lawful representative role as a senator.
“It is needless talking about the economic crisis on going in Nigeria even where a few cabal are massively enriching themselves. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently said that food inflation has risen to 40.66 percent. Similarly, the 2023 State of Food Security and Nutrition World report, has it that the number of food-insecure Nigerians has also increased by 133 percent in three years. It jumped from 63.8 million between 2014 and 2016 to 148.7 million between 2020 and 2022. It is even worse at the moment.
“Even with all these glaring and scaring challenges, the government is said to have paid about N150 billion naira for a presidential jet, building roads that have no direct bearing with the economic crises in Nigeria. “The media practitioners are recoiling into their shelves for the fear of reporting the facts about this government for the fear of emasculation and incarceration.
“What is so democratic about the party in government making decision for an independent legislative arm on who takes up leadership role in our legislature. This is clear a tyranny of a cabal against the a legislative autonomy. Nigeria is gradually descending into dictatorship and we are calling on the citizens to be on an alert and put up a defence against the starvation weapon being deployed by this administration.”
