The Deputy National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Ayo Olorunfemi, has advised the 2023 LP presidential candidate to ignore all calls to dump the party ahead of the 2027 general election.
Mr Olorunfemi, also the LP Candidate in the 2024 Ondo governorship election, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos that Mr Obi should rather focus on rebuilding the party.
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NAN reports that there have been calls in some quarters on Mr Obi to dump the party for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
One of those making the calls, Segun Sowunmi, a former PDP governorship aspirant in Ogun State, said during a television interview on Thursday that Mr Obi’s return to his former party would brighten the chances of the PDP in 2027 .
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According to Mr Sowunmi, Mr Obi, who left the PDP for the Labour Party ahead of the 2023 presidential election, owes much of his national political recognition to his time at the PDP.
Mr Olorunfemi noted that though Mr Obi was at liberty under the law to associate with any political party of his choice, he needed to be wary of what he called dangerous advances.
He said: “Now that he has contested and he has seen the LP force, if he decides to go to another political party, it will then speak volumes of his intention.
“It will tell whether he truly believed in the ideology of the Labour Party before coming to run, or if he just wanted to use the opportunity of the platform.
“So, it will now be left for Nigerians to decide whether Obi, who got millions of votes under the Labour Party, can still be voted for under PDP or another party.
“He (Obi) must use his tongue to count his teeth. If I were him, what I would be doing now is working to restore peace in Labour Party and rebuild it
“He should find a way to resolve the issues in the party and remain on the platform. He should remain in the party and restore peace. He should stay and resolve the crises he and others created in LP.
“Moving around will portray him as an opportunistic politician not different from these politicians jumping here and there,” he said.
Noting that Mr Obi had the capacity to resolve the crisis in the Labour Party, Mr Olorunfemi said that some aspirants shelved their ambitions in 2022 to allow Mr Obi to use the LP platform to run for president.
He, however, said that if Mr Obi decided to dump the LP, the party would continue to exist as a strong opposition party.
Speaking on the leadership crisis in the party, Mr Olorunfemi said that the Julius Abure-led LP National Working Committee (NWC) never wronged Mr Obi and others fighting against it.
He said that members of the NWC, including himself, risked their lives and endured vitriolic attacks from different groups and persons for supporting Mr Obi’s presidential ambition in the last election.
“What is the offence of Abure? He stood in the sun, stood in the rain. All of us in the NWC stood by him (Obi). In spite of all the attacks, we stood by him.
“My own people, in the course of fighting for him (Obi), called me names for fighting for someone not from my tribe. LP is blind to ethnicity and I supported him because I believe in politics devoid of ethnic sentiment.
“There is bound to be crisis. People will come with different things in mind, but we have to moderate everything like we are doing now in LP
“Everything we are doing in the Labour Party is in line with our constitution. That is our strength.
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“Anybody who wants to challenge the authority of the NWC should challenge it to the constitution.
“They should show us the aspect of the constitution that has been violated. If they confront us with the facts, then we will agree with them,” the chieftain said.
NAN reports that the party has been enmeshed in a leadership crisis since it lost in the 2023 election.
(NAN)
