Labour Party tags Shettima a ‘court jester’ over ‘disparaging’ comments on Peter Obi

The Presidential Campaign Council of the Labour Party (LPPCO) has blasted the vice presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Kashim Shettima, over comments against its presidential flag bearer, Peter Obi.

The council said it deemed the comments as insulting and disparaging which negates the spirit of the Peace Accord signed by all the candidates.

Shettima had, in a recent interview, reportedly said that Obi would be the “best President in Igboland but definitely not in Nigeria” because “Nigeria is too big for him to handle.”

While kicking against the comments in a statement on Saturday, the Director-General of the LPPCO, Dr Doyin Okupe, described the comments ascribed to Shettima as “insults and disparaging” to its presidential candidate and other candidates which violated the spirit of the Peace Accord all presidential candidates and their parties subscribed to.

Part of Okupe’s statement reads:

“Our political parties are all signatories to the National Peace Accord supervised by General Abdulsalami Abubakar, National Peace Committee Chairman, and which represents the bonafide code of conduct for all corporate and individual direct participants in the current electoral process.

“In the Peace Accord, signed in Abuja, it was expressly stated that candidates will avoid the use of abusive and offensive language throughout the campaigns.

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“It is, therefore, very unfortunate and regretful but not exactly surprising that, in flagrant disregard for the clauses and principles of this accord, the APC vice presidential candidate, in particular, has continued, repeatedly, to play the court jester – by persistently, irresponsibly and recklessly, making all sorts of derogatory comments, totally at variance with good manners and decorum.

“We are, in no doubt whatsoever, that while he has consistently abused the opportunity of public audience by making these snide remarks about His Excellency, Peter Obi, and other candidates, he cannot, in the least and in any way, ever measure up to these his political superiors in integrity, character and status, not to mention vision, policies and national acceptance.

“We here emphasize that, strictly in line with the directives of our presidential candidate, His Excellency, Peter Obi, to keep the campaign engagement and rhetoric, civil and issue based, we have resisted his sustained diatribe, and could not bring ourselves to his dirt level, to respond to him in like manner.

“However, it must be placed on record that this does not represent a lack of capacity to publicly take him on.

“At this juncture, Labour Party Presidential Campaign Organisation will like to advise the APC to rein in and restrain its vice presidential candidate from further uncouth and unguarded language against our candidate and all other candidates in this race.

“It can be understood that he is still basking in the euphoria of having been nominated to the exalted position of the vice presidential candidate of a party, which ordinarily could never have occurred in an environment of strict adherence to best practices and where due attention is paid to pedigree and known antecedents.

“For a fact, in other civilized climes, a presidential election is a serious process of responsibility to the people, and should not become an arena for display of verbal hooliganism.

“We will like to remind Shettima that those who make their living in glass houses should not have stone throwing as their hobby.

“A word should be enough for the wise,” the statement reads.

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