Labaran Maku, former Minister of Information and National Orientation, on Tuesday said that the popularity of the Labour Presidential candidate, Peter Obi and his supporters known as the ‘Obidients was underrated by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) before the February 25 poll.
Maku, who is a PDP chieftain from Nasarawa State, further said that the two main parties underestimated Obi and his supporters because they thought he lacked political structure and would not be able to do much, but were surprised by the outcome of the 2023 presidential election, which showed that the youths were not joking.
The former minister said this while featuring on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme about the outcome of the 2023 elections.
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Maku said: “What happened in the presidential election as you could see was that there was this wave of young people, the ‘Obidients’ that we all took for granted and we were thinking Peter Obi was a joke. Where would he go?
“So, both PDP and the APC, were thinking, this man does not have structure, he will not be able to do so much’.
“But the young people seized the initiative from the politicians. And for the first time what we saw in Nasarawa, Edo, several other places, and in Delta State where the PDP vice presidential candidate comes from.
“We saw that young people were serious about what they were doing and they took advantage of social media to project a programme which has shaken the nation.”
He admitting that the PDP lost the presidential election in Nasarawa to the LP, but claimed that the ruling APC victory in the gubernatorial poll was aided by fraud.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Bola Tinubu, president-elect after he polled 8,794,726 votes to win the February 25 presidential election.
The APC candidate was defeated in Lagos State which is his base, by the LP’s candidate.
However, Tinubu’s victory is been challenged by the PDP’s and LP’s Presidential candidates who alleged rigging, irregularities and failure of INEC to transmit the election results electronically.
