Obi reacts to reported alliance with El-Rufai, plans on leaving Labour Party 

 

Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, has denied planning to leave the party ahead of 2027 election. 

 

In March, a former spokesperson for the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation, Daniel Bwala, said Obi was planning to leave the Labour Party and join a former Kaduna Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, in the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

 

 

 

Bwala, who made the allegation in a post on his X handle, said Obi was planning to leave the Labour Party following the current crisis in the party with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) threatening to take over the party.

 

 

 

Obi, a former Governor of Anambra State in the Southeast region, joined the Labour Party in May 2023 in the buildup to the 2023 general elections following his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

 

 

 

Obi was absent at the party’s national convention during which Julius Abure was re-elected as the party’s national chairman.

 

 

 

During an X Space session, Obi said that he didn’t attend the event because the party’s leadership failed to heed his appeal for wider consultation with relevant stakeholders before the exercise.

 

 

 

Reacting to media reports following his grouse with the leadership crisis and speculations that he might defect before the 2027 election.

 

 

 

After donating a borehole to a ram market in Tike Pantami, on Sunday, Obi denied the allegation, saying, “No, there is no such thing.”

 

 

 

The former Anambra governor urged the people to unite, saying he believed in peace.

 

 

 

“Our concentration should be on peace and I believe that we will resolve all situations,” he said. 

 

 

 

Reacting to reports that he and former Kaduna governor, Nasir E-Rufai would soon be joining the Social Democratic Party, Obi said he was “more interested now in Nigeria’s success today than tomorrow”.

 

 

 

He said, “We are always concentrating on the election rather than what Nigerians are going through. My commitment is about Nigerians living in a better society and given a better life.”

 

 

 

Regarding the recent hike in electricity tariff for Band A customers, Obi called for the provision of remedy, especially in poor areas.

 

 

 

He noted that “everywhere in the world those living in Band A areas pay more while those in rural areas are subsidised”.