The Labour Party (LP) has reacted to the sacking of Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State by the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja.
According to judgment on Sunday, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal led by Justice Elphreda Williams-Dawodu ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Mutfwang and issue a fresh one to Nentawe Goshwe of the APC whom the court declared as the valid winner of the March 18 governorship election.
Mutfwang was the third opposition governor to be sacked by the Court of Appeal within three days.
Reacting to the sack of the three opposition governors, the chief spokesman for the LP Campaign Organisation, Yunusa Tanko, concluded that the judgments might have been spurred by some ‘vicious’ persons in the executive arm of government who were using the judiciary as a tool to capture the states.
Speaking to Punch, he insisted that if the ruling party is not challenged, they would completely clean other parties from the political scene.
He said, “As I said earlier, these particular set of people in power are vicious politicians. I repeat the word vicious again for emphasis.
“Gradually, we are beginning to witness completely captured states where all the institutions have already been bought, intimidated, or blackmailed to do the bidding of the present political party and the government in power.
“There is no hanky-panky about it. They are clear on what they want to do, and they are putting our democracy in power.
“It is now left for us to really challenge these particular people otherwise they are going to take us completely to the cleaners. And they don’t care how, when, and where they do it as long as it favours them. This is the danger.
“Now the electorates are being discouraged from going out to vote for candidates of their choice knowing that the mandate can be snatched. They are already in control of the state apparatus.
“We had a similar situation at a point when the PDP was in power. These particular people in power will be referencing how virtually everybody was joining the PDP (during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration) then.
“There was no clear ideology and that was what gave birth to the APC conglomerate. But in this case, it is a different matter entirely. These people in power are just too vicious.”
