...Says LP will activate extant laws to prosecute those involved

Edo State Labour Party (LP) governorship standard bearer in the September 21, 2024, gubernatorial election, Olumide Osaigbovo Akpata, has pointed the finger at the state’s Deputy Governor, Engr. Omobayo Godwins Marvelous, saying he masterminded the recent invasion of LP State secretariat with the connivance of the suspended youth leader of the party, Mr. Kenneth Osakpolor Omusi.

Akpata’s intervention is coming closely after Comrade Kelly Ogbaloi, State Chairman of the party, claimed at a press conference that the suspended youth leader, Mr. Kenneth Osakpolor Omusi, along with a group of over 50 individuals, forcibly entered LP State secretariat under the cover of the Edo State Security Network, subdued the staff members available in the office and gained entrance to the party office.

He had reportedly claimed that the state executive was dissolved and appointed himself as the Acting Chairman.

But Akpata, who was miffed by the development, promised to apply all relevant extant laws to prosecute those involved in the invasion of LP State secretariat.

According to Akpata, “I just wanted to lend my voice and to sound a note of warning to the opposition that we will not tolerate any interference in the activities of our party, and we advise them to prepare themselves to meet us in the field rather than trying to use underhand method to undermine the Labour Party.

“Labour Party is a moving train; anybody who decides to stand in the front of the train would do so at his peril”.

He stated: “some of you may be aware that the current deputy governor of Edo State was taken from among our folds and appointed by the current governor.

“It will appear that the current deputy governor, employed for the purpose, must have assured his paymaster that Labour Party is decimated and that the party does not exist, that once he leaves us, the party will no longer exist.

“People pretend to be legends in their own mind; he has no such relevance or consequence, not in Akoko-Edo, not in Edo State Labour Party.

“The individual who invaded, who attacked our secretariat – suspended youth leader Ken Omusi – we know what the deputy governor has done. We have pictures, photographic evidence to the effect that they are working together. And we know that the incident of the last couple of days is just another part of their script to create the impression that there is chaos in Labour Party.

“There is no chaos in Labour Party; we are organised and ready to reclaim or claim Osadebe Avenue for the people.

“So, we must send out this note of warning, or what is our crime? All we did was to organise a fitness walk, that is all we did. Only small fitness we did, from Ring Road to TV road is the cause of their actions against Labour Party. This is just a preamble of our readiness.

“So what has happened is that they had gone back to their recent employee to say ‘no be so you be talk am’, ‘no be you say Labour Party don scatter?’ So there is now what we call in law ‘buyer’s remorse’, what was promised was not what has been offered. Some people have gone to tell their paymaster that ‘Labour Party must to scatter,’ ‘Labour party no go scatter; instead, na them go scatter’”.

The LP governorship candidate added: “We are ready to play fair because we are sure that the people are with us, and that if we all play by rules of the game, as we know them, we will win the elections of September 21, and we will go to Osadebe Avenue in November, because we are with the people and the people are with us.

“However, we are asking the government in power, we’re asking them very nicely to please steer clear from Labour Party. Don‘t come here; we have no room for you.

“This minion who used to be our youth leader, our suspended youth leader working with the deputy governor, arrived on these premises with officers of the Edo Security Networks, and arrived on this premises with police officers attached to government house.

“When bird cry for night, pikin die for morning; you will forgive me for making certain conclusions.

“So, we are sending a note of warning to those who are orchestrating this confusion that confusion does not exist here in Labour Party. We are clear in our minds where we’re going, Osadebe Avenue direct.

“We will play the game according to the rules and we are calling them to do the same thing. Labour Party is not a push over.

“I want to align with Mr. Chairman that we would employ all avenues provided by the law to ensure that these miscreants, those who invaded our secretariat, those who assaulted our staff members, are brought to book; anything we need to do within the confines of the law, we will use them to do example to know that next time ‘dem no go try am’”.

While assuring that LP is resolute that this will not happen again, the governorship candidate noted that the party is ready for election.

“We ought to go and be ready too so that we will meet ourselves on the field. All these wen dey do is ‘IGG’ – ‘initial gra gra’. We go no where; no shaking.

“We send a message to our former comrade. The other day, we did fitness walk, they now came up that they are about to organise what they called ‘Marvelously Obedient fitness walk'. We are encouraging our former comrade, ‘dey your lane make we dey our lane,’ ‘you cannot use us to shine’.

“The height that he reached in Labour Party was as a result of the support he had from the people. We wish him well in his five months tenure as Deputy Governor. You cannot destroy Labour Party; ‘so dey your dey make we dey our dey’”.