The Labour Party (LP) has dissociated itself from the lawsuit instituted against the Federal Government by the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP).
The National Chairman of LP, Alhaji Abdulsalam Abdulkadir, at a news conference on Monday in Abuja, said he and his party, which was a stakeholder in the organisation of the opposition parties, were not in support of the action.
“I have been forced to address this news conference by the recent media controversy as well as the action taken by an individual to sue service chiefs in the name of CUPP, an organisation that I am a relevant and senior member of.
“This decision, as well as many others taken by this individual, has not been one borne out of consultations among members but a decision exclusively his.
“This habit, therefore, brings the question of why he did not use his own Political Party, rather than an organisation comprising other political entities.
“An individual should not and cannot continue to act in the interest of the whole without due consultation and approvals.
“I want to state categorically, as a formidable stakeholder in CUPP, that I am against the action of suing the Federal Government on the issue of the continuous stay of the service chiefs.
“Let me also state that I and the Labour Party, do not support the federal government’s decision to continue to retain the Service Chiefs in the face of rising insecurity in the North East and other parts of the country.
“However, we would not also allow ourselves to be dragged or become a party to a circus suit aimed primarily at promoting an individual’s quest for popularity and misplaced political relevance rather than at exacting justice for the Nigerian people,” he said.
Abdulkadir added that the law suit, no matter how pleasing it sounds, is not geared towards yielding a decisively positive result in the Courts but is geared towards making mockery of our judicial processes.
According to him, the Labour Party and I, will not be a party to reducing our national institutions into a mere circus and I therefore distance myself from the law suit.
“We cannot embark on a ludicrous journey aimed at taking undue advantage of our judicial process.
“Even though, we are an opposition Party and a standing member of the CUPP, we cannot continue be a part of an individual’s quest to weaken our national institutions and systems, when we are striving and hoping to take control of them in the future.”
Abdulkadir said that other executive members had watched with dismay how some persons who were not members of the Steering Committee had ran away with the organisation meant to represent a coalition of over seventy individual political interests, without recourse to the Steering Committee or the sensibilities of other partners.
“This has gone on for a long time in spite of concerted and concerned calls from all and sundry.
“The CUPP is made up of mature, respectable and responsible individuals and entities, which may explain why a lot of restraint have been exercised and members have been refrained from having a public showdown,” he said.
