The Oluwatoyin Shokunbi-led Caretaker Committee of Labour Party (LP), Lagos, yesterday assured that the rift rocking the party in recent times has been mended, saying that the party members, supporters and volunteers are now united under one voice.
At a press conference held yesterday in Lagos, Shokunbi said the issues facing the party were due to the activities of certain people that didn’t mean well for the party, its candidates or nation at large.
Speaking on the rift, Shokunbi said at the expiration of the former Caretaker Committee, led by Olukayode Salako, another stakeholders’ meeting was convened where all six interest groups in Lagos (including Salako-led Caretaker Committee) were represented.
Shokunbi noted that at the end of the meeting, an all-inclusive, harmonised and unified caretaker committee emerged under her leadership.
She said, “The Caretaker Committee was duly inaugurated and already in the field working to deliver Peter Obi and all LP’s candidates across board ahead of 2023 general election. I want to make it clear today that LP is not a part of the purported stakeholders meeting that was unconstitutionally convened by the former Chairman, Salako at an event centre in lkeja where he purportedly handed over his powers to one Ekong Dayo.
“The despotic video clip of Salako boasting himself of having the authority to install a successor is humiliating to our dear party. Salako does not have the power to do such. It is just the culture of impunity, which many of these people planted to cause division in our midst.
“Salako does not have the power to appoint a successor for himself under any guise. The national leadership with knowledge of the Hon. Shokunbi-led Caretaker Committee, who has been attending the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, could not have appointed another in an unconstitutional manner.”
We state here and now that the Hon. Shokunbi-led caretaker committee of the LP Lagos State, is the only legitimate leadership of the party in the state.”
Shokunbi said Lagosians and Nigerians as a whole are tired of the status quo and yearn for a change. “Nigerians are hungry and angry, so many breadwinners have lost their means of livelihood and more people are living in poverty. We need to get victory at the polls to correct the present anomaly.”
She added that the other faction does not bother her as she is the legitimately appointed chairperson and has the support of everyone, who has not stopped working to ensure the party’s victory next month.
She continued: “As long as we are on the same page, I don’t mind and will only mind when they begin to work against us. They said we don’t have structure but Nigerians have told them that we, the people, are the structure. LP is not for the rich or moneybags; we are all putting in our best to forge ahead.
“Everyone has great manifestoes but we need someone that will walk the talk and that is who we have in the person of Peter Obi. When we go for campaigns and sensitisation, people ask for money and rice but we make them realise that they need a better country, a country that works rather than money.
“The old hands give the electorate pittance once every four years and we ask them, where has this gotten them after 23 years? We don’t do money politics in LP and we resist it in any form. Anyone that gives you money in exchange for your vote, has taken your voice and destiny for the next four years, this should not be so. We are fighting for a better Lagos and better Nigeria and the youths are solidly behind us, giving us strength and inspiration.”
