The leadership of All Progressives Congress (APC) Professionals Council has cautioned the opposition political parties, particularly the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), against making what it termed unsavoury and inciting utterances capable of causing unrest in the country.
The Council gave this admonition on Sunday in a statement made available to newsmen in Lagos, saying that the inflammatory comments of the opposition who were threatening to disrupt swearing-in of the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on May 29 could be a recipe to stir crisis.
The body, in a statement signed by its National Director- General, Hon. Seyi Bamigbade, while expressing concern over the development, appealed to parties who were aggrieved about the February 25, 2023 Presidential and National Assembly polls to utilize legal means to seek redress rather than heating up the polity with unguarded utterances.
“We have watched with utmost concern how the opposition parties, particularly the Labour Party and the PDP, have consistently tried to undermine the country’s democratic institutions by threatening to block the swearing-in of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, and his vice, Sen. Kashim Shettima come May 29.
“One of such cases is the recent appearance of the Labour Party Vice- Presidential Candidate, Mr. Datti Baba-Ahmed, where he threatened that Nigeria’s hard-fought democracy will end if Bola Tinubu is sworn-in it.
“For us, this is abuse of freedom of speech and incitement taken too far. The parties have already lodged their petition before the courts and one would assume that they will allow the wheel of justice grind to its logical conclusion instead of this resort to self-help,” the Council said.
The Council, however, called on security agencies to take proactive steps to ensure that the desperation of few individuals does not throw the country into anarchy.