The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, has dismissed speculations that he was parting ways with the party.
This is contained in a statement signed by the Peter Obi Media Reach, POMR.
In the statement, the LP candidate distanced himself from the news item on some online platforms, stressing that it was the handiwork of mischief makers.
According to a statement signed by Obi’s Media Aide, Michael Jude Nwolisa, on Friday, the POMR expressed its wish to vehemently “dismiss trending fake and fallacious news stories suggesting that he was parting ways with the Labour Party.
“This is not true and it did not originate from Obi or the Obidient Movement but from mischief makers bent on sowing the seed of discord in the party.
“These rising misdemeanors on the party did not start today as they set out to destroy and disorganize the party all to get at Obi and derail the inevitable journey of rescuing Nigeria.
“Presently our principal is preoccupied with making Nigeria work not on partisan politics which ended on October 26, 2023, when the Supreme Court of the land took their final decision on the general elections.’’
Adebayo Bello, chairman of Labour Party In Osun, has been suspended for alleged misappropriation of N34 million fund.
The politician said he only received N300,000.
Mr Bello was suspended by members of the executive of ward 12 of the party led by Hammed Sheriff, at a news conference, on Tuesday.
Addressing journalists in Osogbo, Mr Sheriff alleged that the misappropriated fund was to campaign for Peter Obi in the February 2023 presidential election.
“I, Hammed Sheriff, being the chairman of ward 12 Osogbo Local Government and having seven of the executive with me making a two third of the Exco and having found Bello Adebayo guilty of Article 19 (1b) subsections 2,4, 5 and Article 19 (2b) subsections 3, hereby suspended him as a member of the Labour Party in the ward,” Mr Sheriff stated.
He added,
“For example, The funds meant for media consultancy amounting to about N4 million given to Bello was not released for the purpose it was meant for.”
Mr Sheriff explained that “unfortunately, the Osun LPPCC allowed Bello to dupe them the second time.
Having given himself a very bad reputation among the Obidients, Candidates and Party leaders, he had to rely on the goodwill of LPPCC to get people/polling unit agents to submit Form EC8A after the elections. And before the LPPCC decided to work with him, he promised that those who submitted these forms would be compensated.”
Mr Sheriff also mentioned that “after submission, he was thereafter given N30 million to pay polling unit agents that submitted Forms EC8A.
Now the leaders of LPPCC are being chased around by those who submitted these. Forms, while Bello had collected and cornered their funds.”
The ward leader also accused Mr Bello of failing to attend ward meetings of the party without any permission, arguing that the embattled Chairman had earlier been suspended by the Bauchi NEC executive.
In his reaction, Mr Bello said his suspension by the wards executive could not stand, noting that those who suspended him no locus standing to do so. He denied the embezzlement allegations.
“With regards to funds, I am not aware of any N34 million, the only fund I received was N300,000 sent by Akin Osuntokun and it is verifiable. I am not aware of any funds during the presidential campaign rally in the state,” Mr Bello revealed.
The Lagos chapter of the Labour Party says no fewer than 20 lawyers and legal professionals have volunteered to help the party and its candidates retrieve their allegedly stolen mandates.
At a meeting with some of its candidates in the last general elections, the party said that a legal team had offered to render services to candidates who felt cheated following the outcome of the state’s February 25 and March 18 elections.
Labour Party chair in Lagos, Dayo Ekong, disclosed this while addressing the frontline candidates and other critical stakeholders at the party’s secretariat in Ikeja on Tuesday evening in Lagos.
“We have a group of professionals and lawyers who want to volunteer their services for free to help our candidates retrieve their stolen mandates. Feel free to contact them in case you need legal advice,” Ms Ekong stated.
The Labour chair added,
“We are hopeful that the legal practitioners will help those who do not have money to hire lawyers to fight their cases in court. All eyes are on the judiciary. We are going to win.”
The party chair told the aggrieved candidates to “stand strong, tall and stay focused no matter the attacks and intimidation.”
According to her, the leadership challenges rocking the party will fizzle out soon as the party has commenced processes to expose and show the infiltrators the way out.
“We cannot allow people who are playing the script of some paymasters in our midst to continue. Our children must grow up to see a new Nigeria, and that is our passion and commitment,” said Ms Ekong.
“Be part of history; fight the battle no matter the castigation and intimidation. If our country is better, our children will sing a new song.”
According to her, the Lagos Labour Party chapter is behind the Julius Abure-led National Working Committee.
“We are at a period in this party when everything looks uncertain because of infiltrations,” she said.
She begged all aggrieved candidates to shelve their grievances and work to promote the party and its ideas in their various constituencies.
National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Julius Abure, has said the party will be refunding the N25 million nomination fee paid by late governorship aspirant of the party in Imo State, Humphrey Anumudu, to his family.
Anumudu had purchased the party’s form to contest the LP primary ahead of the November 11 governorship election in Imo State but died last week.
Abure who spoke on Tuesday, March 28, said the party decided to return the nomination fee to the family of the deceased to show empathy and compassion.
He said;
“You will recall that one of our aspirants in Imo State lost his life. I am pleased to announce to members of the public and members of the Labour Party family and his immediate family that the party will refund the nomination fee of N25 million that he spent.
“We feel that we need to do this the support the family and show leadership of compassion, of empathy and that is whet the Labour Party stands for.”
The PDP and its candidate for Lagos West senatorial district, Sunday Adewale (alias Aeroland), have filed a petition against former Deputy Governor Idiat Oluranti-Adebule, over alleged non-qualification to contest the senatorial election.
The petitions were pasted on the wall of the Rosaline Omotosho Courthouse, Ikeja, the venue of the elections petitions tribunal.
Mr Adewale, in the petition, marked EPT/LAG/SEN/04/2023 and dated March 18, filed against Ms Oluranti-Adebule, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and INEC as first to third respondents, alleged that she was not qualified to contest the election.
He said the former deputy governor was not qualified to contest at the time of the election and was not duly elected by the majority of lawful votes.
The PDP flag bearer stated that Ms Oluranti-Adebule did not possess the educational qualification to contest the Lagos West senatorial district election held on February 25.
The petitioners also alleged that the third respondent (INEC) did not comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 in the conduct of the election.
Mr Adewale and PDP said in the form requiring Ms Oluranti-Adebule to state the schools she attended, with dates, the APC standard-bearer only indicated she graduated in 1982 without stating the primary school attended.
Also, Moshood Salvador and the Labour Party are challenging the declaration of Ms Oluranti-Adebule as the election winner.
The petitioners alleged multiple thumbprinting and ballot stuffing during and after the election.In the petition marked EPT/LAG/ SEN/01/2023, Mr Salvador alleged that the election was marred by violence, intimidation, fracas, threat, ballot box snatching, over-voting, and mutilation of results from polling units.
Mr Salvador added that the second and third respondents engaged in multiple thumbprinting and ballot stuffing during and after the election.
He explained that the entirety of the Lagos Central senatorial district election was invalid because of substantial non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022, INEC Electoral Guidelines and the 1999 Constitution.
The Labour Party candidate added that the first respondent failed to comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 and Electoral Guidelines during the election, claiming there was no due accreditation of voters.
He also said the election result was not electronically transmitted through the BVAS machine.
Vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Datti Baba-Ahmed, has described the victory of President-elect Bola Tinubu at the February 25 election as a mirage that will soon vanish as his party commenced legal actions against Mr Tinubu’s victory.
The Labour Party filed its petition, challenging the election results on four grounds, before the elections petitions tribunal on Tuesday.
Likening Mr Tinubu’s certificate of return to a dud cheque that lacked the required credit to be considered of any value, Mr Baba-Ahmed said the election did not produce any legitimate winner.
“We do not have a president-elect in Nigeria today. What Alhaji Tinubu is holding is a dud certificate. It’s a dud cheque. There are no funds in that account. It will bounce,” Mr Baba-Ahmed said on ARISE TV.
Although the Labour Party candidate cited the wrong section, he attempted to dissect what he described as the constitutionality of Mr Tinubu’s emergence.
He posited that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) misinterpreted a particular section of the Constitution (133(b)) which addresses the number of votes the president-elect must garner to be declared the winner.
Section 133 (1) (b) of the Nigerian Constitution states that a candidate can only be declared president if “he has not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the states in the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”
According to Mr Baba-Ahmed, INEC did not comply with this section as Mr Tinubu lost the FCT to the Labour Party having had only 90,902 votes (19 per cent) against Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi’s 281,717 (61 per cent).
“There is the clear interpretation of 134, and there is the INEC interpretation of 134,” he said. Mr Baba-Ahmed’s claim came as legal arguments over how to interpret the clause are interrogated in the chambers of election counsels.
Femi Falana, a senior lawyer in Nigeria, has argued that other provisions of the Constitution define the Federal Capital Territory as Nigeria’s 37th state, making the 25 per cent requirement not mandatory in the FCT.
The Appeal Court will have busy weeks ahead as it examines the arguments brought by contending parties and candidates arguing that they were unfairly edged out in the election.
The Labour Party, the APC, and the PDP had asked the court for permission to examine sensitive election records to look for irregularities and gather sufficient proof to back up their claims of victory.
The All Progressives Congress says it is ready to meet Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate in court over his claim of fraud in February 25 presidential election. It said there are evidence of electoral violations against Mr Obi’s party in the South-East.
Bayo Onanuga, the director media and publicity of APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) said this in a statement on Thursday, reacting to Mr Obi’s comments at a news conference in Abuja.
“We welcome the decision of Mr Obi to seek redress in court as an aggrieved party if he is convinced of the evidences of electoral frauds he will present before the tribunal as alleged.
Going to court is part of the electoral process and it is the most decent, statesmanlike and civilised course of action to take,“ Mr Onanuga said, noting that it is better than calling supporters to the streets and instigating social unrest.
He, however, challenged some specific claims in Obi`s press address, saying that contrary to his statement, it was not true that the election was not free and fair.
“It is because the process was credible that made it possible for Obi’s Labour Party to record the over six million votes it got contrary to pre-election forecast.
That Labour Party and Obi surprised bookmakers by winning in Lagos, Nasarawa, Plateau, Delta and Edo states where there are sitting governors of either the APC or the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),” the statement explained.
He added that the Labour Party also swept the five South-East states under the control of either APGA, PDP or APC.
“We believe that the Labour Party presidential candidate contradicted himself and exposed himself by suggesting that the election was only credible in states and places his party won.
We need to forewarn Obi, that when he gets to court he should be prepared to tell the world how his party won over 90 per cent of votes in his region of South-East while other parties got almost nothing,” Mr Onanuga stressed.
“We have evidence of voters’ suppression, intimidation and harassment in South-East, especially of those who came out to vote for our party.
“He pointed out that Mr Obi did not win the presidential election.
“This is because he had no path to winning a national election in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society like Nigeria. Where a candidate running in a national election must appeal to the cross-section of our pluralistic society,’’ he said.
Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has rejected Saturday’s presidential election results, saying the exercise was the “worst in the history of the country.”
Mr Abubakar, who addressed journalists in Abuja Thursday evening, revealed that the outcome of the election, which favoured Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), would be challenged in court.
“I have come to the conclusion that the process of the election was grossly manipulated…it is the worst in the history of our country’s democracy and the results must be challenged in court,” Mr Abubakar declared.
Mr Abubakar’s address comes a few hours after Peter Obi, the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), also rejected the weekend exercise.
Mr Obi specifically said that the election exercise was “marred with irregularities”, stressing that he won the presidential election and would provide the evidence for Nigerians to see.
“We won the election, and we will prove it to Nigerians,” Mr Obi told reporters during a world press conference held in Abuja.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on Wednesday, declared Mr Tinubu the winner of Saturday’s presidential election after he polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat Mr Abubakar.
Mr Abubakar scored 6,984,520 votes to come second, while Mr Obi came third after polling 6,101,533 votes.
INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, also subsequently issued Mr Tinubu a “Certificate of Return” the same day.
The Labour party has called for the suspension of the announcement of election results and cancellation of the ‘’compromised” election.
The Presidential Campaign Council of the Labour Party made the call today February 27.
At a press briefing, Dr Akin Osuntokun, who is the Director-General of the Labour Party Campaign Council said President Buhari and the INEC chairman, Yakub Mahmood, had on several occasions come out to promise Nigerians a free and fair election with the passage of the new Electoral Act but that what has become glaring is that none of these promises has been kept.
Osuntokun stated that all promises about deploying a fail-safe system anchored on BVAS were broken as the internet and social media are awash with videos and photographic pieces of evidence of the pervasive violence and attacks that were visited on Nigerians during the elections, adding that some attacks were still ongoing across the country.
He said that there are numerous evidence of collusion between INEC and the security forces to subvert the will of the people, stressing that INEC’s guidelines on the conduct of the elections were extensively breached, and INEC has evidently been very reluctant to make the necessary adjustment to remedy the situation.
‘’Contrary to the publicly advertised guidelines for the conduct of the elections, we are convinced that the processes leading to the results have been severely compromised.
Consequently, we state that we have lost confidence in the results being collated and announced.
Nigerians have inundated us with calls and protests over INEC’s non-compliance with provisions of the electoral guidelines and the obvious manipulations of the election results.
We, hereby, call on INEC to suspend the further announcement of the results, and follow its own guidelines or completely cancel the entire election and make plans for another election with strict compliance with the stipulated laws and guidelines,he said.
Donatus Mathew of the Labour Party has won the Kaura Federal Constituency seat in the February 25 National Assembly elections in the Kaura Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
The Returning Officer, Elijah Ella, who declared the result in Kaura on Sunday, said Mr Mathew polled 10,508 votes to defeat his closest opponent, the incumbent, Gideon Gwani of PDP, who garnered 10,297 votes.
The defeated PDP lawmaker is taking a shot at the seat for the fifth time.
The Returning Officer said Benjamin Gugong of the All Progressive Congress came third with 9,919 votes, while Simon Na’Allah of the New Nigeria Peoples Party came fourth with 5,354 votes.
He explained that 36,983 voters were accredited out of the 101,624 registered voters in the LGA.
He added that of the 36,983 accredited voters, 36,133 cast their votes.
“Mr Donatus Mathew of the Labour Party, having satisfied the requirements of the law by scoring the highest votes, is hereby declared the winner,” he said.
Labour Party, LP has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC of refusing to upload results of the presidential elections collated in various polling units in Lagos and Delta states to the Central Server.
In a statement released this evening, February 25, the National Chairman of the party, Barrister Julius Abure, said INEC officials in connivance with the security agencies, are claiming that the BVAS have suddenly developed a fault and therefore cannot function.
He stated that information from the party’s field men has it that in places like Agege, Kosofe, Oshodi-Isolo, Surulere, and Ibeju Lekki, amongst others where results show that Labour Party won convincingly, the INEC officials claim that the BVAS suddenly developed a fault when it concerns uploading results of the presidential election.
“Information reaching me has it that in Lagos, they have refused to upload the results for the presidential election, they have uploaded that of the Senate and House of Representatives but for the presidential, they have refused.
And they are using the police to drive our agents and supporters out of the place. And they said that they have firm instruction from INEC headquarters not to upload.
For example, in Kosofe, they put the collation centre in a Local Government Area Headquarters.
The place is sorrounded by APC and people are afraid of their life. They are not uploading, they said that they have been giving instruction to insist that the BVAS is faulty. And most of the places we won, but they have refused to upload.
As I speak, APC officials are in Yaba office of INEC negotiating with the officials. What I have said now is happening in Agege, Kosofe, Oshodi-Isolo, Surulere, we have this situation all over. In Ibeju Lekki, our local government chairman who attempted to stop them was arrested by the police.”
Abure said that similar situation is playing out across the collation centres in Delta state.
The Labour Party chairman, however, called on INEC to ensure that only genuine and verifiable results generated from the various polling units should uploaded.
The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept the nomination of candidates of the Labour Party (LP) in 24 states of the federation for the 2023 general elections.
Justice Inyang Ekwo gave the order on Thursday while delivering 24 different judgments in 24 different suits brought before him by the party.
The judge held that INEC violated Sections 31, 33 and 36 of the Electoral Act 2022 in rejecting the Labour Party’s candidates in the affected states on the grounds of non functioning of its nomination portal.
The court asked the electoral umpire to accept the list of the candidates in the 24 States either manually or through its electronic nomination portal.
Mr Ekwo held that the evidence of the Labour Party through exchanged letters with INEC in the nomination issue was credible and proceeded to attach probative value to it.
He said that the consequences of a non-functional electronic nomination portal could not be visited on the Labour Party.
He agreed with the submissions of the party that nomination and submission of candidates list could not be rejected by INEC from any party until 90 days to the general elections.
The court said that the time the Labour Party sought to submit the list of its candidates in the 24 states was more than 90 days to the 2023 general elections, and so it was within the time allowed by law.
Mr Ekwo held that INEC was bound to accept the party’s candidates’ list manually if its electronic nomination portal was faulty.He subsequently ordered INEC to open its website for the purpose of allowing the Labour Party to submit the list of its candidates or accept the same manually with immediate effect for the purpose of the 2023 general elections.
The 24 states affected include; Bayelsa, Niger, Rivers, Sokoto, Akwa Ibom, Gombe, Borno, Osun, Adamawa and Cross Rivers.Others are Benue, Bauchi, Ebonyi Ekiti, Kwara, Plateau, Katsina, Nasarawa, Lagos, Kaduna and Oyo states among others.
The Labour Party told the court that in November 2022, it substituted candidates who withdrew from the 2023 general elections in the affected states.
The party told the court that the withdrawals were communicated to INEC by the National Chairman and National Secretary of the party.
This, the party said, was done along with notification of the October 27 date to conduct substitution nomination primary elections.
However, at the point of uploading the fresh candidates names, INEC claimed that its nomination portal was faulty and declined to accept the candidates list manually and this led to the filing of 24 suits.
The Labour Party has released its manifesto, which is titled “Our Pact with Nigerians: Creating a New Nigeria.
“The party manifesto also highlighted seven of the party’s priorities for governing the country.
The presidential candidate of the party, Peter Obi, shared the manifesto on his Twitter handle on Sunday and said;
“I have the honour to present our 72-page Manifesto, titled, “It’s POssible: Our Pact with Nigerians.” This Manifesto, its overarching and visionary policy planks lay out our mission focus and mandate for securing, uniting and making Nigeria productive.”
Some of the seven priorities include ending insecurity, moving the nation from consumption to production, rule of law, improve power supply, human capital development and others.
Gunmen suspected to be political thugs have again disrupted a meeting of the Labour Party in Enugu State.
The attack, it was gathered, took place on Saturday at Nomeh Primary School in Nkanu East Local Government Area of the state.
That was the third time in less than two months that gunmen would be attacking supporters of the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, in the state.
The state chairman of the party, Mr Casmir Agbo, who confirmed the attack to our correspondent on the telephone on Monday, said the party had reported the incident to the appropriate quarters.
“Our members were attacked by gunmen wielding AK-47 rifles in Nomeh Primary School on Saturday,”
he simply said without giving further details.Efforts to get the reaction of the state police command were unsuccessful as the command’s spokesman, Daniel Ndukwe, did not take his calls.
A political analyst and social commentator, Charles Ogbu, called on the Nigerian Police Force to live up to the expectations and protect the people.
Victoria Inyama has classified “70%” of Peter Obi’s supporters as “Zombidients” and “Obidiots”.
Supporters of the Labour Party’s presidential candidate are referred to as “Obidients”, coined from the surname of the candidate.
In an Instagram post, media personality Daddy Freeze categorized Obi’s supprters into 3: Obidients, Zombidients, and Obidiots.
Freeze said the Zombidients are just clueless supporters while the Obidiots are “louts and touts”.
Inyama responded to Freeze’s post. According to her, the majority of Peter Obi’s supporters are either clueless as to why they are supporting him or are louts.
Since last week when the news broke on the defection of former Anambra State governor, Mr Peter Obi from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the Labour Party, LP, there has been growing support for the former bank chairman, with a lot of support across social media platforms.
First was that in Anambra State where Obi pulled out of the PDP, after a glaring plan to frustrate his effort to clinch the party’s ticket for the presidential election, many members of the party also dumped the party, including its bigwig politicians, its aspirants and very many supporters, all running to the Labour Party, for the simple reason that Obi has moved on.
Upon the news of Obi’s resignation, what one can describe as mass resignation hit the party, with Mr Valentine Ozigbo, PDP’s governorship candidate in the November 2021 governorship election in Anambra, who is running for Senate, withdrawing from the race, but failing to announce his resignation from the party. Apart from Ozigbo’s withdrawal, Hon Valentine Ayika, Hon Tony Nwoye and Hon George Ozodinobi, all former members of the National Assembly are among those who also withdrew from their aspiration and resigned from the party.
As at then, a source within Anambra PDP, however, had told DAILY POST that more prominent politicians in the State will still dump PDP in the coming days. The source said it was in anger that Peter Obi left the party, as Uba and others were working to humiliate him in the State, even as he battled his fellow presidential aspirants.
“More people will leave before the end of this week. It is true that PDP in Nigeria has problems, but the problem of Anambra PDP is far more than that of the national. It is still the reason they have not held a primary election for any position, till today. The plot is for all Obi’s line up to move en mass, and join the Labour Party, from where they will give PDP a fight,” the source said.
Exactly as predicted, more people are still leaving the PDP for the Labour Party, but the worry is now not only that of the PDP, but has spread to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and all who have interest in the coming election.
Currently, one can say that if online support can win presidential elections in Nigeria, Mr Peter Obi is already comfortably coasting to victory in the 2023 presidential election.
For example, on all social media platforms in the country, there have been all manner of support for Obi by Nigerians who believe he is the best man for the job. There have been comedy skits, political posts by ordinary Nigerians who have shown support for the former governor. Among them are social media posts, which have stated that even if Peter Obi joins ‘end of the year party’, ‘end of discussion party’, ‘party after party’, they would still vote for him.
Such cult followership is enough to send jitters down the spine of any other political party, especially as during the first 48 hours of his defection to LP, the server of the party’s website was reported to have broken down as a result of huge traffic, as people registered to become members of the political party.
There have, however, been varying views on the followership Obi is gaining on the internet, as some people have stated that following on social media may not translate to physical votes during the election. But a rights activist, Ejike Mba, who spoke to DAILY POST is of the view that it is from forming opinions on social media that people build the determination about where to vote.
He also stated that such open declaration for Obi on social media may also influence people who do not have a stand yet, while also stating that there is absolutely no truth in the insinuation that social media votes do not transform to physical votes for candidates.
He said, “If you ask me, the best thing that has happened this year is the acceptance of Mr Peter Obi to run for president, and as if that is not enough, he quietly exited the PDP and moved to a less known party when it became obvious that PDP was bent on frustrating him. I’m a supporter of Peter Obi, and there is no way people can tell me that the kind of cult following he is enjoying today can not translate to positive support during the election.
“Let me tell you, the people that are not happy are people that are in the ruling political party, APC. If you are someone who uses Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or even WhatsApp, you will see the kind of comment people are making about the personality of Obi. In 2015, APC and it’s candidate, Muhammadu Buhari had the same kind of acceptance in the social media, but the only difference was that while the APC and their propaganda arm induced people to make post that were positive about Buhari, the case of Peter Obi is that after visiting a lot of places on the platform of the PDP and also presenting his case and arguing in television shows, people today see him as the man who cuts the shape of the kind of president that can bring hope to this country.
“Have you not seen Peter Obi being mobbed at airports and other public places? Don’t you see the kind of support people are showing to him? The good thing is that unlike the APC, which stage-managed the kind of Buhari they wanted us to believe in, especially through social media influencers who they paid, the case of Obi is that genuinely, people are making positive videos, comments and posts about him because they are convinced about what they want.”
Speaking on the possibility of Obi’s support base which is the youth staying with him through the election, a journalist, Mrs Ify Nzebo said: “Most of the fight is for Obi to fight. Just like people have been saying ‘there is no polling unit in social media’, I still believe that with all the campaigns, people are more politically aware today than they were in 2015 and in 2019. A lot of people have realized the power of the PVC, and they are going all out for it.
“I’m sure the youths will come out enmasse to vote for Obi as they have also been supporting him, but what I’m definitely not sure of is that any of those youths will want to stay behind and protect their votes as they usually say. As for coming out to vote, people will vote Obi enmasse, but if in the case opposition political party decides to use violent thugs to rig the election, most of the youths will rather want to be safe. Thankfully, from what we have heard, the new Electoral Act may not permit such use of violence to rig elections this time.”
On the willingness of the north to relinquish power, Mba said: “Many people have been talking about the willingness of the northern oligarchs to cede power to the south, and they too have shown it that they are not willing. That is why after eight years of two tenure, the north is still not willing to have power zoned to the south. PDP has also confirmed it by electing Atiku Abubakar as their candidate, making Peter Obi’s exit from the party a very good move.
“But one thing I know is that, this could be the very opportunity for the real Nigerian people to choose their own president, irrespective of the options placed before them by a cabal. I’m already sure that the APC will also elect a northerner as candidate, but it is up to the voting public to choose who to vote for. Already, Peter Obi is sitting pretty because this will be the first time that someone outside the two big parties is posing a threat to the big parties, and also being positively believed to have the chance to win.”
Former Anambra State Governor, Dr. Peter Obi on Monday emerged as the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party.
Obi emerged as the presidential candidate after another presidential aspirant, Prof. Pat Utomi stepped down for him.
The party’s presidential primary was held in Asaba, Delta State.
Asides Utomi, another aspirant, Joseph Faduri also stepped down for Obi to emerge as the presidential candidate.
Utomi had said Obi was younger than him and had the capability to effect the needed change that the country so much desired.
Obi had dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) last week, 72 hours to the party’s presidential election.
He announced his withdrawal from PDP in a letter to the National Chairman of PDP, Dr Iyorchia Ayu.
In the letter, Obi said he was writing to inform Ayu of his resignation from the PDP, which he had already conveyed to the chairman of PDP, Agulu Ward 1, Aniocha Local Government Area of Anambra State.
Obi said it had been a great honour to contribute to nation building effort through the PDP, but lamented unhealthy development in the party which made him to quit.
“Unfortunately, recent development within our party makes it practically impossible to continue participating and making such constructive contributions.
“Our national challenges are deep-seated and require that we each make profound sacrifices towards rescuing our country. My commitment to rescuing Nigeria remains firm even if the mode differs,” Obi had said.
The former Anambra governor later announced his joining the Labour Party.
A former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yusuff Lasun, has dumped the All Progressives Party (APC) for the Labour Party in Osun State.
Yusuff announced his defection to the Labour Party at a meeting in Osogbo.
He was immediately confirmed as the party’s governorship candidate for the July 6 governorship election in Osun State.
The former deputy speaker quit the APC on March 25.
He finished third in the party’s governorship primary held on February 19 in Osogbo.
The other two persons in the governorship race are Governor Gboyega Oyetola and former Secretary to the State Government, Moshood Adeoti.
In his address at the meeting, Yusuff said his defection to the Labour Party and success in the election would herald industrial development, extensive agricultural development, good health, exploitation of mineral resources and good education.
He said: “If I emerge victorious, my administration will focus on subsidising education, farming, infrastructure, health and exploitation of mineral resources for the citizens.”
The Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate in Anambra State, Obiora Agbasimelo, has been declared missing.
The candidate’s disappearance has fuelled speculations that he has been kidnapped.
The emergence of Agbasimelo as LP’s governorship candidate in the November 6 governorship election in Anambra followed the crisis in the party.
The crisis threw up a faction in the LP while one of the leading aspirants at the beginning of the governorship race, Nnamdi Nnoruka, was allegedly kidnapped by unknown persons and forced to withdraw from the contest.
The state police command has not issued an official statement on the matter.
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