Apparently wary of the growing popularity of the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, ahead of the 2023 general election, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the former Anambra State governor of splitting the opposition in the country.
It alleged that all those campaigning for Obi are working for the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu Tinubu.
Spokesman of the PDP presidential campaign council, Dino Melaye, called on Obi to “come back home” to support Atiku in order to stop the continuation of APC in government.
In a statement he issued yesterday in Abuja, Melaye noted that Obi does not have the capacity to unite the country.
He also called on the chairman of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Mohammed Buba Marwa to subject all the presidential candidates to a drug test.
Melaye, who admitted that Obi is depleting Atiku’s votes, claimed that Obi would not win the presidential election because the Labour Party does not have the structure to do so.
He noted that the Labour Party has only 30 senatorial candidates as against the 109 senatorial seats.
He said, “I will start without coloring it. And Nigerians must know that any vote for Peter Obi is a vote for APC because Peter Obi cannot make it. So, anybody that is voting for the Labour Party is actually voting for Tinubu. Anybody that is campaigning for Peter Obi is actually praying and working for Tinubu to become the President of the Republic of Nigeria because if you are voting for Peter Obi, you are depleting the votes of PDP because Peter Obi cannot make it.
He however claimed that Obi cannot stop Atiku’s victory in 2023.
“The truth of the matter is that the Labour Party only fielded 30 out of 109 candidates for the Senate. So who is going to protect the votes of the Labour party when even fielding candidates for 109 senatorial seats they couldn’t. They only fill that in 30 constituencies. Even the House of Representatives, they couldn’t field in every constituency. For the House of assembly they couldn’t fill upto 50 percent across the country,” Melaye stated.
“The truth of the matter is that the Labour Party only fielded 30 out of 109 candidates for the Senate. So who is going to protect the votes of the Labour party when even fielding candidates for 109 senatorial seats they couldn’t. They only fill that in 30 constituencies. Even the House of Representatives, they couldn’t field in every constituency. For the House of assembly they couldn’t fill upto 50 percent across the country,” Melaye stated.
He said fielding candidates for these positions is a basic criterion for measuring a party’s national spread for elections.
He further likened Obi to a regional candidate, claiming that that was the reason why Chief Obafemi Awolowo; Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe; Aminu Kano; couldn’t emerge presidents of Nigeria.
He added that Buhari emerged president after he ran on a national platform of the APC, having lost elections three times because he was a regional champion.
