By Moses Okorie
The national chairman of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Dr. Dan Nwanyanwu has expressed displeasure with the call by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi, that the ZLP, among other political parties, be delisted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for failing to win any elective position.
Nwanyanwu wondered why the AGF would suggest that ZLP be delisted despite winning 179 councilorship seats and 15 local government chairmen, whereas the law prescribes that a political party is eligible to exist even if it wins only one councilor.
He said his party is peaceful, and called on politicians from other political parties to come to ZLP, purchase nomination forms and run for various positions as the party is not to be delisted, as insinuated by the AGF.
Challenging the AGF, he said: “You are afraid those in the other parties will not come here, and what if they come here, what is your business. If they want to come here, let them come. Don’t stop people from exercising their franchise; from exercising their constitutional rights.
“It is their right to move anywhere; it is their right to participate in an election. It is their right to move from one party to the other and the constitution guarantees it. Why should an Attorney General of the Federation utter this kind of thing, if he didn’t want to liquidate the parties.
“These are the parties he thought those that are having problems in the other bigger parties will run to. We are not quarreling with anybody, but he should know Abubakar Malami was on that seat yesterday, he is there today; and so, he should warn himself”.
The Zenith Labour Party national chairman called on Nigerians to come to his party and purchase nomination forms as they stand the chance of winning.
“I’m calling on Nigerians who want to contest election, we have no case anywhere, we are as free as the air, come and pick your forms and run under Zenith Labour Party”.
Nwanyanwu referenced how he took a patriotic position by encouraging the then national chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, to go ahead with collection of presidential election results when other opposition parties thought otherwise, and it was that process that brought Bola Tinubu as president.
“That was what saved Mahmood to continue, and if the collection had failed, Tinubu wouldn’t have been president. Muhammadu Buhari would have dissolved INEC. I have said this several times, nobody has challenged me.
“He would have dissolved the INEC, put somebody else, the person will address you after a week or two that he needs more than six months to clean the table.
“By that time, Buhari’s tenure would be running, and at the end of his tenure, he would achieve his purpose by using, of course, the National Assembly that was ready to apply the doctrine of necessity. You would have an interim president, and Tinubu wouldn’t have been president”, he emphasised.