By Jethro Ibileke
The Edo State chapter of Labour Party (LP), has alleged that its ward 7 secretariat located at Ugbekun, in Benin City metropolis has been taken over forcefully by hoodlums loyal to the two major opposition parties in the state
The State Chairman of LP, Comrade Kelly Ogbaloi, who disclosed this on Friday in Benin, the State capital, said the APC and PDP are determined to truncate the party from repairing the ruins of the country he alleged they orchestrated.
He said: “It has just come to our notice that our Labour Party ward office at Ward 7, Ugbekun, in Ikpoba Okha local government area of the state has been overrun by some persons believed to be thugs hired by opposition parties.
“The thugs have destroyed the office and driven out our members and staff out of the office and taken possession of the building. They have removed the flags of Labour Party and taken occupation of the place.
“I do not want to run into suspicion, but this can not be unconnected with the opposition parties of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its cohort, the PDP, who are head-bent on truncating Labour Party’s resolve to deliver the citizens of this country from the deep poverty, sicknesses and diseases inflicted by the misrule of the PDP and now the APC governments.
“If I have anyone to suspect, it should be members of the APC and that of the PDP,” he added.
Ogabloi who said that the party can no longer guarantee the extent to which it will tolerate what he described as “electioneering rascality of opposition parties in Edo state”, urged Governor Godwin Obaseki to provide protection for the party.
According to him, “This case is one case too many. We are therefore asking Governor Godwin Obaseki, to see it as a duty to Labour Party members as law-abiding citizens of the state within the sovereignty he governs, to see it as his duty to provide them protection, to arrest this ugly trend and then give us the confidence to operate in Edo State without molestation anymore.
“Not withstanding our resolve to continue to abide by the law, we are bold to say that if this provocations continue unmitigated, Labour Party cannot guarantee the extent to which it can continue to condone this abrasive nature of some persons who think they are above the law within the society of Edo State.
“We are saying this now for the whole world to hear and understand that an established ward office could be overrun daylight with members of the party driven away as if they are not citizens of this country.”
The Edo LP chairman said the party resolved to ensure that never again the people of this country go through the severe and traumatizing pains of economy, social alienation we have all gone through over the years.
“We want to put it on record that the unwarranted and needless provocations is becoming more and more intense and therefore we urge the agents of government as a matter of urgency to look into the matter.
“Whosoever is involved in this, we are asking the government, the law enforcement agencies to immediately arrest and prosecute these persons without delay”.
“We are therefore using this medium to speak to the law enforcement agents, the DSS, and the Police that Labour Party is currently taunted, but as law-abiding citizens of this country, we have tried tenuously to ensure that we do not do anything against the law.
“We conclude by saying that a word is enough for the wise. Any further attempt to repeat this ugly incident to Labour Party would be met with stiff resistance,” Ogboloi said.
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