Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP) Mr. Peter Obi as well as his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, were absent as the party on Wednesday, unveiled its Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) for the forthcoming 2023 presidential election.
The unveiling of the 1, 234-member council was done at a press conference which was held in Abuja.
Dr. Doyin Okupe was named the PCC’s Director General. Mr Oseluka Obaze was named as Deputy Director General and General Manager of the campaign; Alhaji Yusuf Bello Maitama, the Deputy Director General (North), and Denzel Kentebe, the Deputy Director General (South).
While the event was ongoing, Obi tweeted that he was attending the 52nd Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) conference.
READ ALSO: http://N608 billion 2022 FCT Appropriation Bill passed for Second Reading in Senate
“I just arrived at the 52nd ICAN Annual Accountants Conference. -PO,” he tweeted. However, the absence of Baba-Ahmed could not be explained at the time of filling this report.
In his remarks at the event, Director-General of the PCC, Doyin Okupe, said the processes through which Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar emerged as presidential candidates of the All-Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were “dishonourable” and “flawed”.
“In all honesty, these errors of selfish and opportunistic political manipulation are not only short-sighted and dangerous, but strike at the very heart of Nigeria’s peaceful coexistence, and in fact the very survival of the nation as an entity,” Okupe said.
He said it was in response to what he termed an “affront to good judgement,” that more than at any time in our history, Nigeria was witnessing her hottest, fiercest and most dynamic citizen-led political experience, spearheaded largely by the youth population.
READ ALSO: http://Senate passes 2023 Appropriation Bill for Second Reading
Okupe described the ‘Obidient’ movement as purely organic.
“At this juncture, for the avoidance of doubt, let me state here clearly that our party, the Labour Party, as well as the Obi-Datti presidential ticket of the party, have not spent a kobo to organise, influence, or secure the massive following and support we have been getting from the Obidient Movement to date,” he added.
“As we commence the campaign for the 2023 elections, in earnest, our party and our candidates, will remain committed to honest, clean and issue-based engagements, with the Nigerian people, whose mandate we seek, in order to turn around the fortunes of this our great, but badly misgoverned country,” he said.
