The Director General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Akin Osuntokun, on Tuesday, berated the National Chairman of the party, Julius Abure, following the decision to withdraw the automatic tickets of its former presidential candidate, Peter Obi and Governor Alex Otti of Abia State.
Abure had announced after Monday’s emergency meeting of the National Executive Council that the NEC had reviewed and rescinded the automatic tickets to create a healthy political contest for all qualified aspirants ahead of the 2027 elections.
The national chairman also disclosed that the rule also applies to the current members of the National Assembly.
Reacting to the development when he was featured as a guest on Arise Television on Tuesday, Osuntokun said Abure’s decision to make a U-turn a few weeks after his pronouncement showed he had an ulterior motive.
The LP campaign DG also raised concerns that the party cannot afford to have a southern national chairman when the presidential flag candidate is also from the South.
According to him, they need to strike a balance to avoid giving Nigerians the notion that it is a regional arrangement.
He said, “It is not for him (Abure) to decide who will be the candidate or not. This is a fundamental misunderstanding coming from someone prone to a delusion of grandeur. How can a party chairman announce such a thing? It means he has already decided who gets the presidential ticket. It defies logic.
“The Labour Party, on account of the strength and capacity displayed (at the last election), had assured many that Obi and Otti would retain their tickets. But some vested interests, like the ruling party, for instance, will be interested in the subversion of the party. The best way to do that is to go through the national chairman. We saw the one with the (Lamidi) Apapa’s own. They are at it again.
“The truth is there is no way you can hold a convention without the consent of INEC. If you stage a convention in which the principal stakeholders stay away and INEC is still not in a position to give the approved authority, it is clear. Look, this tendency of sit-tight syndrome is what is principally wrong with Africa.
“Potentially, Obi is likely to be the candidate of the party in the next election. He is from the South East. So by the logic of Nigeria’s power politics, the chairman of the party should not come from the South. That is logical. I don’t know how this plays in his (Abure) mind. These are the kind of things that should be in his consideration.”
Obi’s campaign spokesman, Yunusa Tanko, told our correspondent in a phone chat that their camp won’t speak on the matter.
“We don’t want to speak or say anything concerning the Labour Party for now. We are not ready to join issues with anybody on the matter,” he said.