Ahead of the 2027 general election, the Senator Nenadi Usman-led Labour Party (LP) has cried out over what it described as a desperate plot by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to hijack its structures by infiltrating its ranks.

It also criticised President Bola Tinubu’s seemingly unending love for foreign travels amidst Nigeria’s growing security and economic challenges.

Interim National Publicity Secretary of the party, Tony Akeni, said this yesterday in a telephone interview with THISDAY.

Akeni explained that information reaching the party’s headquarters from various states of the federation showed that the ruling party was positioning its moles to infiltrate the party structures through the scheduled party congresses at the ward, local government, state, zonal, and ultimately, the national level.

Akeni said, “We have been made aware of the heinous plot by the ruling APC to infiltrate our ranks at all levels to derail our forthcoming congresses.

“If they fail, they plan to get a seat on our party’s table to continue from where they stopped after failing to use our former National Chairman, Julius Abure, to distract us from our goal of rebuilding our party.

“Nigerians are also aware of what the current administration has turned our institutions, such as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), into.

“We all witnessed to what transpired during the by-elections, which were held in 16 out of the 36 states recently, and the manipulation of the ongoing voter registration exercise.

“Our nation cannot afford to have a repeat of the era where the American boxer, Mike Tyson, the late pop star, Michael Jackson, and Lionel Richie appear on our voters’ register.

“As a party, we will continue to urge Nigerian voters to be vigilant. Eternal vigilance, as they say, is the price we all must pay to protect our democracy.

“The body language of INEC as presently constituted gives it away as an institution which is only ready to pander to the whims and caprices of the ruling party.

“We can only pray that whosoever is coming into office after the tenure of the current INEC boss expires in November or December is not going to throw the confidence of Nigerians down the drain,” he explained.

Speaking on the kind of person the LP would like to head INEC in the foreseeable future, he said the person must be above board, fair-minded, God fearing, incorruptible, and most of all, must possess all that it takes to tell truth to power.

In a statement later issued by Akeni on behalf of the party, he criticised Tinubu’s seemingly unending love for foreign travels amidst Nigeria’s growing security and economic challenges.

He said the president’s trip this time around indicated that he was increasingly becoming allergic to staying at home to tackle the nation’s problems.

President Tinubu left Nigeria for a 10-day working vacation in France and the United Kingdom as part of his 2025 annual leave on Thursday.

Akeni noted that available records show that 135 million Nigerians fell into poverty within the first 18 months of Tinubu’s administration due to difficult economic policies.

He equally pointed out that galloping inflation, weakening of Nigeria’s currency, the naira, and insecurity have been the hallmark of Tinubu’s rule since he took power in 2023.

Akeni said, “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu departed Nigeria for yet another of his many overseas trips.

“This time, the trip is officially explained as a 10-day vacation and part of his 2025 annual leave, which he will spend in France and the United Kingdom.

“As President Tinubu takes to the sky, he leaves behind a country ravaged by economic hardship where 135 million citizens fell into poverty in the first 18 months of his administration, caused by his difficult economic policies.

“Tinubu also leaves behind an insecurity of historic proportions, where 57 Nigerians die every day from various forms of violent death.

“This amounts to seven deaths more than Ukraine’s war casualties, which lose 50 citizens per day in its full-scale war with Russia, according to research by Mediazona and The Book of Memory Group, corroborated by a similar BBC study.

“The Nigerian casualty figures exclude deaths from daily traffic accidents, Nigeria’s frequent boat mishaps, and other civil hazards.

“You will recall that President Tinubu had only sat in office for four months after his swearing in on May 29, 2023, when he flew overseas on his first annual vacation. This was on October 2, 2023.

“This means that under the APC governance manual, four months made up one year for the Nigerian president to go on an annual vacation. This is historic for a post-inaugural president because it doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world.

“Since assuming office on May 29, 2023, President Tinubu has travelled and virtually ‘lived’ outside Nigeria for nearly 160 days. This is almost half of an entire year in only two years of office.

“Tracing this unproductive trend backwards to Buhari’s days, records show that APC produces dinner and toothpick presidents who eat breakfast in Abuja, have lunch in Paris, and belch in London.

“They enjoy costly vacations abroad like children enjoy excursions to amusement parks. From Buhari’s administration to Tinubu’s current rule, that is the only reason why billions of naira they vote every year for the Aso Villa presidential clinic perpetually empty into unknown pockets, and the clinic’s medicine shelves do not have drugs for even cramps.

“From late Buhari to Tinubu, APC has continued to produce nomadic presidents whose medical and social tourism cost our country billions of Naira in taxpayers’ money.”

The Labour Party’s interim spokesman said the party will do things differently should Nigerians vote it into power come 2027.

According to him, it is the government’s responsibility to put in place a standard healthcare system that would cater to all citizens. (THISDAY)

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