Monday 18 July 2016

OGUN STATE COUNCIL POLLS:


WE CALL ON THE WORKING MASSES TO JOIN AND BUILD A GENUINE POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE TO ALL THE ANTI-POOR PARTIES


PRESS STATEMENT

We of the  Ogun State Chapter of the Socialist Party of Nigeria(SPN) view the release of the election timetable by the Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission into the Twenty(20) Local Governments and 37(thirty seven) Local Council Development Areas by the Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission as a step long overdue. According to a media release signed by Alhaja Risikat Iyabo Ogunfemi, the Chairperson of the Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission, the local council elections are scheduled to hold on Saturday, 8th October, 2016.  We of the Ogun State   SPN have been at the forefront of the mass campaign for elections to be held into the local councils.

The Socialist Party of Nigeria is a party formed in 2012 by genuine socialists, rank-and-file workers, artisans and change-seeking youth as a party that expressly stands for a clear-cut programme of wresting political power from the hands of the entire anti-poor ruling elite. The main promoter of the Socialist Party of Nigeria, the Democratic Socialist Movement has a long history of consistent intervention in the struggles of the workers’ movement, students’ movement and the community movement. It has stridently called on the leadership of the labour movement to build a genuine mass working people’s political alternative that can alter the current socio-economic situation in favour of the working masses.  It initiated the Socialist Party of Nigeria to serve as a striking example to the broader working people’s movement and campaign for the building of a wider mass working people’s political alternative. Despite the fact that the Socialist Party of Nigeria has met all requirements under the law to be registered and has complied with further guidelines by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the out-of-court settlement granted to INEC in the pending suit challenging the non-registration of the SPN at the Federal High Court in Abuja, INEC has refused and neglected to furnish the SPN with its Certificate of Registration.  

In Ogun State, the Socialist Party of Nigeria through the Education Rights’ Campaign has supported the struggles of students in different tertiary institutions in Ogun State (OOU, TASUED, TASCE, etc) against education commercialization. We also participated through the Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights in the mass protests and struggles of Ogun State workers for the payment of their unpaid salaries, earlier this year. 

We submit that the local council elections at this period comes handy as a referendum on the anti-worker Ibikunle  Amosun-led All Progressives’ Congress Ogun State Government that has illegally refused to remit pension and dues deducted from workers salaries . However, we are quick to warn that the array of similar anti-poor political parties such as the People’s Democratic Party, the Social Democratic Party, the Unity Party of Nigeria and the Labour Party who are posturing as “alternatives” to the All Progressives’ Congress in the forthcoming local council polls are as inherently anti-worker and anti-masses as the APC.

We also call on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to oblige the Socialist Party of Nigeria its Certificate of Registration as it has met  all requirements known to law and it is willing to participate in the forthcoming local council polls in Ogun State as well as other elections across the country. We call on workers, students, artisans, traders, okada riders, tri-cycle(Maruwa) riders, unemployed people and young people seeking for a way out of the long nightmare of the unjust exploitation under all the anti-poor political parties to join the Socialist Party of Nigeria in Ogun State to build a real and genuine political alternative that can wrest power and put the enormous wealth of society into meeting the real needs of all - education, jobs, social housing,etc-and not for the benefit of the few rich.  


EKO JOHN NICHOLAS                                                             
 State Secretary                                 


To JOIN the SPN in Ogun State: Contact 08022634850, 09097933015

Friday 8 July 2016

WE CONDEMN BAN ON STREET TRADING IN LAGOS

Stop all attacks  on democratic rights
PRESS STATEMENT

We of the Lagos State Chapter of the Socialist Party of Nigeria strongly condemn the statement credited to Akinwumi Ambode, the Executive Governor of Lagos State banning street trading and ordering the arrest of ordinary people who buy from street hawkers. Ambode reportedly relied on the Lagos State Street Trading and Illegal Markets Prohibition Law, which provides that anyone who buys from a street hawker is liable to N90,000(Ninety thousand naira) fine.

We of the SPN holds that this incongruous provision inserted into the Laws of Lagos State is in itself a breach of the fundamental right to movable property which is enshrined under Chapter Four of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999 as amended) and the Lagos State Street Trading and Illegal Markets Prohibition Law is unconstitutional in its entirety and repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience. We decry this attempt at mass criminalization by the Lagos State Government and call on the Lagos State House of Assembly to repeal the Law as fast as possible. We also call for  the repeal of the Lagos State Special Offences Law, with which the Lagos State Special and Environmental Offences Taskforce(Taskforce) and Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) have made life intolerable for the poor, homeless and jobless in Lagos State.

We call on the mass of the working people in Lagos State to stand up and resist this move to turn the state to a “banana republic” and organize mass actions to resist this madness. We call for series of unrelenting mass protests until the Lagos State Government backs down on this order and the Lagos State House of Assembly repeals the law.

DARE TO STRUGGLE! DARE TO WIN!
WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT OUR CHAINS!
 

Moshood Osunfurewa
State Secretary

WE CONDEMN THE IMPOSITION OF SOLE ADMINISTRATORS ON LOCAL COUNCILS IN LAGOS STATE


PRESS STATEMENT

We of the Lagos State Chapter of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) condemn in strongest terms the imposition of Sole Administrators on local councils in Lagos State by the Akinwumi Ambode-led All Progressives’ Congress Government. Hence, this act is not only undemocratic, it violates section 7 (1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended which states: “the system of local government by democratically elected local government councils is under this Constitution guaranteed…” This is inspite of the valid and subsisting judgment of the High Court of Lagos State that mandates the Lagos State Government to hold elections into the local councils since January, 2016. The Lagos State government just like other state governments across the federation has converted local councils into its marionette. 

We reject the argument of the Ambode regime that it has filed a Notice of Appeal to the judgment at the High Court. It is extant law that where Notice of Appeal is filed without filing Appellant’s brief, the appeal is deemed to have been abandoned. Having abandoned same, what is proper is for regime to conduct elections into the local councils.

We also condemn the nature of the recent appointments into the board of the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission with majority of the appointees being card-carrying members of the All Progressives’ Congress (APC). For instance, appointment of Dr. Bunmi Omoseindemi, a leading figure in the APC into the board like most other board members suggests to us that council polls that would be conducted by such a board of the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission would not be free and fair as the board is made up of biased and partisan elements. We demand that the board of LASIEC should be composed of representatives of active political parties and social groups and its affairs carried out transparently.  

We are quick to warn that if these undemocratic steps of the Lagos State Government are not reversed, we of the Lagos State Chapter of the Socialist Party of Nigeria will join and collaborate with other willing forces to engage in both legal and political struggle to stop the Lagos State Government from turning the state into a “banana republic”

Moshood Osunfurewa
State Secretary