The Labour Party (LP) has warned the All Progressives Congress (APC) to caution Kassim Shettima, its vice presidential candidate, to desist from attacking Peter Obi, its presidential candidate and other presidential candidates in the forthcoming general elections.
Doyin Okupe, the director-general of the Labour Party Presidential Organisation, in a statement, said Shettima’s unguarded utterances violate the codes of the national peace accord signed by all political parties.
Okupe said they watched with dismay the insults and disparaging remarks passed on the LP presidential candidate and other candidates by Mr Kassim Shettima.
He restated that all political parties were signatories to the National Peace Accord supervised by General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd), which represents the bonafide code of conduct for all corporate and individual direct participants in the current electoral process.
“It is, therefore, very unfortunate and regretful but not exactly surprising that in flagrant disregard for the clauses and principles of this accord, the APC vice presidential candidate in particular, has continued repeatedly to play the court jester by persistently and recklessly making all sorts of derogatory comments, totally at variance with good manners and decorum,” he added.
According to him, Shettima, who consistently insults Peter Obi and other presidential candidates, cannot, in any way ever, measure up to these his political superiors in integrity, character and status, not to mention vision, policies and national acceptance.
“We here emphasize that strictly in line with the directives of our presidential candidate, His Excellency Peter Obi to keep the campaign engagement and rhetorics, civil and issue-based, we have resisted his sustained diatribe, and could not bring ourselves to his dirt level to respond to him in like manner.
“However, it must be placed on record that this does not represent a lack of capacity to publicly take him on, especially as he personally carries a huge burden of a sordid and reprehensible past. At this juncture, the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Organisation will like to advise the APC to rein in and restrain its vice presidential candidate from further unguarded language against our candidate, and all other candidates in this race.”
