The Labour Party (LP) Presidential Campaign Council has said it will not give money to anyone in exchange for support ahead of Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.
The chairmen of the Labour Party in the 36 states of the federation have declared that the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi cannot win the presidential election on Saturday.
They accused Obi of neglecting them in the running of his campaign and mobilisation activities
Sani Abdulsalam, Gombe State LP chairman and co-ordinating chairman for the 36 States, Sani at a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, said such tendencies could affect the party’s performance at the polls.
He noted that the 36 state Chairmen of the party had never been respected by the party leadership and also its presidential candidate.
He said Obi deliberately mismanaged their goodwill with the imposition of his members and other support groups that decamped with him in May 2022 to the party.
Speaking at a media briefing on Thursday, Gombe LP chairman, Sani Abdulsalam, said Obi can not win at polls on Saturday because he has sidelined all state chairmen and refused to mobilise for campaign activities.
Abdusalam also claimed that Obi has no respect for the executives of the party and has neglected them to work with his cronies.
He was said to be in the company of the national vice chairman (North East), Mohammed Alkali and the Yobe State chairman, Ibrahim Bukar, amongst others.
Abdusalam said Obi’s act of neglect has tendencies to affect the party’s performance at the polls on Saturday, noting that he choose to work with cronies and support groups, saying he doesn’t trust the state chairmen to deliver.
Of note, Wednesday, February 22, 2023, was the meeting we had with the National Chairman in the party head office where a 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, February 25, 2023
“To our surprise, the National Chairman said the Presidential candidate 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,” he said.
According to him, the greatest shock from the National Chairman was that money for agents would 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 Obi himself would be given monies meant for party agents and that an alert would be received by 10 pm tonight Wednesday, February 22, 2023.
“As of now, no alert has been received by any State Chairmen 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 Mr Peter Obi in cohort with the National Chairman, has polluted the party,” he said.
But reacting, the spokesperson of the LP campaign council, Yunusa Tanko, said the party’s focus is on people voting with their conscience rather than those expecting funds for support.
Tanko said the state chairmen cannot stop Obi’s imminent victory, adding that there is no issue of sidelining as alleged
He said: “Nobody is boycotting any election because the election is already on. And nobody is sidelining anybody.
“People are expecting conventional way of politics which is not feasible in our own place. And then the issue of probably mobilisation money for elections, which is what people are used to, and they’re not seeing it.
Now, there’s no money anywhere on ground. It’s about your conscience and if you believe in a movement. That’s all. Nobody should expect any money from somewhere.
“That’s where the problem is but as far as we are concerned, nothing is stopping us. We are continuing our movement and voting will commence in the next 24 hours. There’s no problem.”
