#EndSARS: Labor to review campaign advice list

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• Explains why the Igbo have been appointed coordinators for Lagos, Sokoto

Just 24 hours later, the Labor Party on Thursday promised to review the list of members of its Presidential Campaign Council and make the necessary corrections.

The party was reacting to criticism over the appointment of a former army spokesman, Major General John Enenche (retired), to its PCC's Presidential Advisory Council.

Enenche, a former director of defense information who was part of the 1,234-man Obi-Datti campaign team as part of the north-central PAC, claimed that the killing of protesters #EndSARS in 2020 at Lekki Toll Gate, Lagos was wrong.

The ex-general reportedly claimed that DJ Switch's Instagram live footage, which showed #EndSARS protesters dying from bullets from Nigerian army soldiers, had been photoshopped.

The video of his claims has resurfaced on Twitter nearly two years after the horrific incident in which men in military uniforms invaded the protest venue in Lekki and shot people.

The PUNCH reported that the controversy followed the list of the presidential campaign team of the Labor Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, with allegations of marginalization of other ethnic groups in favor of the Southeast.

For example, critics criticized the choice of appointing Igbo as state coordinators for Lagos and Sokoto states.

Furthermore, a US-based professor and social commentator, Farooq Kperogi, had criticized Labor's campaign slate, saying the party was no different from the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party.< /p>

Kperogi said, "Enenche's inclusion on Obi's campaign slate is significant because the core of young Obi supporters who are engaged because they are enraged are drawn from #EndSARS agitators for which the cover-up of the massacre of protesters in Lekki is a sore point.

"Putting a denier of the mass slaughter of their comrades on the campaign board of a candidate they support and campaign for is both insensitive and disrespectful.

"And why does a campaign fueled by a desire for difference need nearly 1,300 people to sit on a board? That's unwieldy. How is that different from the APC and the PDP? Actually, APC and PDP are better. APC's original list was only 422 and PDP's was only 520."

But in response to the allegation, LP Presidential Campaign Council Chief Spokesperson Dr. Tanko Yunusa told The PUNCH in Abuja on Thursday that the party had become aware comments and would make adjustments necessary.

Speaking on the choice of Igbo as state coordinators for Lagos and Sokoto, Yunusa said many people complaining about the list never showed interest.

He said, "The truth is, how many of them have shown interest in everything we do? Isn't it now that they're trying to show interest?

"Many of them have not shown interest. But the truth is that we are happy now that they are showing interest, they are advising us and we will make corrections. Let them all bring names, we will welcome them.

"Any issues that have been raised, we will address them. We are a listening party and we will do the right thing.

"Every observation is taken into account and as a listening group ready to take power, it is as if we are presenting ourselves for public scrutiny, and the public who lead (us) have spoken, then we will deal with the matter internally and accordingly.”