Barely 48 hours to the general election, the Labour Party (LP) is facing a major crack as states chairmen alleged being neglected by Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the party.
They said Obi failed to recognise the important role of the 36 state chapters’ leadership but rather choose to work with cronies and support groups.
Sani Abdulsalam, the Gombe state LP chairman and co-ordinating chairman for the 36 states who made the allegation at a press conference in Abuja, said such tendencies could affect the party’s performance at the polls.
Accompanied by Mohammed Alkali, the national vice chairman, northeast, Ibrahim Bukar, the Yobe state chairman, amongst others, the leader of LP states chairmen alleged that money meant for the mobilisation of poll agents was withheld by the national chairman, Julius Abure.
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He said: “I speak on behalf of 36 state chairmen of our party in my capacity as the coordinating chairman. We have never been respected by the party leadership and also our presidential candidate has no respect for our party executives at state levels because Peter Obi deliberately mismanaged our good will with the imposition of his members and other support groups that decamped with him in May 2022 to our party.
“Of note, Wednesday the 22nd day of February 2023 was the meeting we had with the national chairman, Julius Abure in the party head office where discussion was held about the logistics support for state chapters and national officers towards effective mobilisation of our members for the presidential and National Assembly election on Saturday 25th February 2023.
“To our surprise, the national chairman Julius Abure said the presidential candidate Peter Obi has no confidence in all the 36 state chapters’ leadership but would rather choose to work with their cronies and support group that came with him.
“The greatest shock from the national chairman, Julius ABURE was that money for agents will not be sent to any state chairman or national officers except those three NWC members including a woman and that all state chairmen and 19 other members already picked by Mr Peter Obi himself will be given monies meant for party agents and alert will be received by 10 pm tonight Wednesday the 22nd day of February 2023.
“As of tonight, no alert has been received by any state chairman and information reaching us confirmed that money was paid based on ethnic and religious consideration because only persons of a particular ethnic group currently run the campaign of Peter Obi in cohort with the national chairman.
“As members of the Labour Party National Executive and National Working Committee (NWC), it is our considered opinion and informed conclusion that Peter Obi cannot win this election since all party executives have been sidelined. He is not ready and is grossly ill-prepared for the Presidential race.”
