The Labour Party (LP) has accused Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka of speaking with bias and sentiment by saying that Peter Obi knew he lost the last presidential election.
In a statement on Thursday, September 14, by its national publicity secretary, Obiorah Ifoh, the LP condemned Soyinka’s position and claimed that he is influenced by those who share the ‘Emilokan sentiment’.”
Ifoh opined that Soyinka has been overtaken by emotions based on what some people told him.
He said that it is interesting that Soyinka who was a member of the monitoring unit during the election, did not mention anything about the flaws of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
His words: “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.
“In Yoruba, ‘Gbajue’ refers to fraudulent activities like age, name or certificate forgery, 419 or narcotics trafficking, all of which are issues in the 2023 elections but not on the Labour Party’s part.
“It’s rather interesting that the erudite Prof. Soyinka who owned up to having an electoral “monitoring unit” conveniently glossed over INEC’s legerdemain leading to substantial noncompliance and erosion of constitutional dictates, just as he conveniently glossed over the INEC’s advanced ‘gbajue’ of 25 February that has surreptitiously installed the King of ‘gbajue’ in Aso Rock…”
