Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour says he will only agree to reconciliation once there is justice

LABOUR Party gubernatorial candidate on Lagos State Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour has responded to the recent call by Nigeria's president-elect Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for reconciliation and healing by saying justice needs to be provided first.

On Saturday February 25, Nigerians went to the polls to elect a new president and the Independent National Election Commission (Inec) subsequently declared Asiwaju Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the winner. Among the main gladiators in the contest were Asiwaju Tinubu of APC, Alhaji Abubakar of the PDP, Governor Peter Obi of the Labour Party and former Kano State governor Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP).

Inec chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu, who served as the returning officer for the presidential election, declared Asiwaju Tinubu the victor of the contest with 8,794,726 votes, defeating Alhaji Abubakar of the PDP, who came second with 6,984,520 votes and Governor Obi who came third with 6,101,533 votes. However, the PDP and Labour Party have refused to accept the results.

Last Saturday, however, the political temperature rose further during the gubernatorial elections, particularly in Lagos State, where the APC and Labour Party were involved in a brutal standoff. Incumbent APC governor Babajide Sanwoolu was involved in a two-horse race with Rhodes-Vivour, that divided Lagosians along ethnic lines.

Asiwaju Tinubu had called for a period of national healing after the very divisive contest, especially, after last Saturday's gubernatorial contest, which were much more rancorous than the presidential polls. He had, in a statement, expressed sadness at what he described as infractions in some states as well as the divisive rhetoric that characterised the polls.

Responding to this call, Mr Rhodes-Vivour decried the violence unleashed by supporters of the APC, during the March 18 governorship election, noting that the actions of leaders of the ruling party could lead to genocide like what happened in Rwanda in 1994. He said he visited the victims of Saturday’s state-backed terrorism and violence from Abule Ado to Surulere, Apapa to Ikeja.

Furthermore, he disclosed he met with young men and women in pain due to bullets lodged in their bodies or deep cuts which have fractured their legs. Mr Rhodes-Vivour stressed that healing cannot happen without justice,. accusing the APC of unleashing evil on Lagosians, with their fetish rites, curses and physical violence.

Mr Rhodes-Vivour condemned the state of agberocracy where the government wants a one-party state and the disenfranchisement of a section of citizens. He accused the APC of stoking ethnic strife for the ambition of one man and his cult and rubbished the credibility Inec built over the years.

“We saw our traditional institutions reduced to pawns, tools. Oro rites that are done at night were done during the day, invoking the spell that Senator Tinubu and his cult have used to keep Lagos bound.

“This was no election, it was violence on multiple levels, diabolically and physically. On this ambition, they sowed seeds that could potentially lead to outcome like the Rwandan genocide,” Mr Rhodes-Vivour  added.

Inec ad declared Governor Babajide Sanwoolu the winner of the Lagos State gubernatorial contest after polling 762,134 votes beating Mr Vivour-Rhodes who scored 312,329 votes. Dayo Ekong, the chairman of the Lagos State Labour Party has announced the readiness of his party to challenge the elections in court.