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A former governorship candidate in Anambra State, Valentine Ozigbo, has asserted that if Peter Obi will contest in the forthcoming 2027 presidential election, he will not do so on the platform of the Labour Party (LP).
Naija News reports that Peter Obi was the presidential flagbearer of the Labour Party in the 2023 general election.
Speaking during an interview on Tuesday on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme, Ozigbo boldly declared that Obi would not run for president on LP if he chose to join the forthcoming presidential race.
During the interview, Ozigbo remarked on a recent comment by the former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kingsley Moghalu.
He also defended his move from the LP to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
“I know Mugalu is an elder compared to me; otherwise, I would have said to him what a child sees standing up. What an elder sees sitting down, a child can’t even see standing up.
“So that’s his choice, and I believe it won’t be long before he comes to the same conclusion with me and I wish the Labour Party well. I’m not here really to demarcate the Labour Party, but I am saying to you and to everyone, I personally don’t see a future in the Labour Party, that’s my judgment and I’m happy to live with it and I would love to be proven wrong. So if he finds comfort and so be it,” Ozigbo said.
When asked to defend the remark by some persons that he (Ozigbo) has a character of use and dump, he said: “You saw the PDP, used it, dumped it, used the Labour Party, used it, dumped it, you’re moving to the APC. Actually, it’s a very wrong way to characterize this.
“It’s rather about somebody who is insistent on right process and due process.
“Now we are also talking about leaving MPP to APGA, to PDP, to the Labour Party, and I can almost guarantee that if he (Peter Obi) wishes to run for election, it will not be under the Labour Party. I can almost guarantee that.
Really? the interviewer, Seun Okinbaloye, asked.
“I am not his spokesperson, so maybe,” Ozigbo replied.
Okinbaloye reiterated, but you are close to him? “Maybe I’m wrong, but I am a witness to a lot of discussions around coalitions and which I can’t tell you my own, you know, optimism about that. But the point here is that when you get into a party, I enjoyed my time in PDP,” Ozigbo replied.
He added: “They granted us free and fair primary, and I was proud of what then Uche Secundus did. When the later leadership showed up, a lot of things changed in PDP and part of the reason why they also have not done well in recent times.
“And so when Peter Obi left PDP to join Labour Party, because what I do is purposeful politics, not transactional politics, I thought that the best decision was to join Peter Obi to support him and I can boast to being one of the biggest and most impactful supporters he had in that election coming out of South East.
And so no regrets for that support. I was proud of whatever effort I put in there because I believed in this country.
“I wanted to sacrifice for this country.
“And to now suggest that if Labour is dying, I should die with Labour would be very wicked of anybody. And that’s the point I’m making. Over time, you will see what I’m saying.
“If you haven’t seen it now, in fact, if you’re a politician, if you’re a savvy politician, you would have noticed by now. I mean, how can you explain a performance in a door? How do you explain that?”
English (US) ·