Labour Party fires back over comment on 2023 Polls at Soyinka, says “He erred, we expect him to be statesman”
Labour Party, LP has slammed Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, over his comment that Peter Obi lost the 2023 presidential election.
Soyinka had while speaking at a programme in South Africa on Wednesday, said the leadership of the Labour Party knew that Obi came third in the election, but were only trying to deceive Nigerians. .
But in a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the Party, Obiora Ifoh, the party said the literary giant may as human expressed the thoughts which may have been informed by emotion or narrative put to him.
“We understand that the literary giant is human and thus susceptible to emotions and probably said what he said based on information made available to him by those who share the ‘Emilokan sentiment’.”
“The Labour Party took note of the statement that emanated from the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka who as an institution we have the utmost respect for. He is a Nigerian whose accomplishments in the literary world are without doubt intimidating.
“However, we beg to disagree with his prognosis and personal opinion on the performance of our party during the 2023 general elections. The facts are before the courts and out of respect for our judiciary, we will reserve our comments until the Supreme Court makes a final pronouncement.
“It is most befuddling as well as disconcerting that a detribalized and activist Soyinka would succumb to the groupthink syndrome that subscribes to State Capture by those belonging to the criminal fringe by any means, based on primordial considerations.
“However we are aware that Soyinka resides in Lagos state and he was in Nigeria in February 25 when elections held in Nigeria. He watched probably with a glee when a certain individual in Lagos warned non-indigenes to vote a particular political party or risk being deported to their place of birth, and he never condemned it.
“He was there when ballot boxes were snatched by thugs in a polling booth right in front of his house, he didn’t condemned it. We are still looking for where he came out to condemn the unprovoked attacks on our supporters in Lagos by members of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, during the last elections.
“The whole world followed the 2023 general election in Nigeria and there was a global condemnation of not only the outcome of the election but also the process, particularly, the ‘glitching’ incidence that occurred only during the transmission of presidential result to IREV. As someone who is known to demonstrate based on truth, we didn’t hear as much as a whisper from Kongi reminding INEC that stand by its word.
“He also watched when Labour Party provided evidences of several defaced result sheets permitted and uploaded to the IREV by INEC particularly in places where Labour Party won, again the great Soyinka was astonishingly mute.
“We will not allege selective amnesia as the reason for Soyinka’s wrong prognosis but we would have expected him to be a statesman which we thought he was by remaining on the side of caution and not exhibiting dual character of someone who may be blinded by some chauvinistic tendencies.
