‘We Will Not Allow Peter Obi Join Atiku Because Of Crisis’

The Labour Party (LP) has declared its resolve not to lose its 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), despite ongoing internal disputes.

Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Friday, the factional National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Abayomi Arabambi, emphasized the party’s efforts to find a political resolution to the crisis to prevent Obi from aligning with PDP’s Atiku Abubakar in the lead-up to the 2027 presidential election.

Arabambi said, “Politically, we will not allow the crisis to fester for long that we will now allow Mr Peter Obi to join Atiku. We knew their plans, that was why we said, ‘we need to explore a political solution between ourselves.”

The backdrop to this statement is a recent legal tangle in which the FCT High Court had earlier restrained Julius Abure and others from acting as national officers of the Labour Party.

However, in a turn of events, the Court of Appeal in Abuja overturned this decision in March 2024, validating Abure’s actions during his disputed tenure.

Justice Hamman Barka, who led a three-member panel, ruled that the FCT High Court had erred in assuming jurisdiction over the Labour Party’s internal affairs and reinstated Julius Abure and others as legitimate national officers, awarding them ₦1 million in the process.