The APC spokesman Festus Keyamo, who is also the Minister of State for Labour, Employment and Productivity. has asked the Department of State Services to arrest the Labour Party, presidential candidate Peter Obi and his vice-presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed.
the petition dated March 23, 2023, and made available to newsmen in Abuja. Keyamo accused Obi and Datti of making inciteful comments in recent media interviews.
Keyamo said, that he had it on good authority that Obi and Datti recruited some youths to push demands for an interim government on social media.
The petition partly read, “I write this petition with the full realisation that in a post-election period such as this, there is a need to soothe frayed nerves, lower the temperature and begin the healing process. The President-Elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has issued a statement to this effect a few days ago.
However, it appears the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed, are not prepared to toe this conciliatory path for the sake of peace and national cohesion, whilst exercising their rights to pursue duly laid-down constitutional means of addressing their grievances. In this regard, since the declaration of the Presidential election results, they have been hopping from one media house to the other making incendiary comments and claims about the declaration of the President-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission”.
Keyamo claims that Peter Obi and his Vice have exited their boundaries of exercising their rights to freedom of speech and the freedom to air their grievances publicly, but they have since crossed the line .. by insisting on the adoption of other processes outside the contemplation of our constitution.
“In some cases, their privies have even called for the establishment of an Interim Government.”
defending his position, Keyamo reported that Baba-Ahmed on behalf of himself and Obi on Channels Television on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, said, that if the President-elect was sworn in on May 29, 2023, it would “signal the end of democracy.”
Keyamo accused Baba-Ahmed of posing as an accuser, a judge and a jury all by himself and “he unilaterally declared the duly elected President-elect as “unconstitutional.
“These conduct and utterances are a build-up to something more sinister and you must rein them in now.
“In the circumstance, I submit this petition as a patriotic Nigerian to invite/arrest, interrogate and after investigation, if necessary, charge both individuals to court for their conduct which amounts to incitement and treasonable felony”.
