Group accuses Obi of creating destruction in LP

…says it will count against you

By Tom Okpe

A group, Alliance for All Labour Party, LP Professionals and Stakeholders, ALPPS, has warned that the Presidential candidate of the Party in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi may face his worst electoral defeat in the 2027 Presidential election, if he continues to destabilize and unnecessarily factionalising the party.

The group warned Obi in a press statement on Tuesday in Abuja that, “thedestruction you are creating in the LP, will speak against you in 2027, calling on the leadership of the party to sanction and completely, severe any ties with the former Anambra State Governor, if he goes ahead to drag the party to the Supreme Court, even after the Appeal Court has revalidated the current National Working Committee, NWC, of the party. 

The National Convener of the ALPPS, Dr Blessing Elaigwu, maintained that the Party has stagnated in the last one year, due to lack of leadership from Peter Obi and unnecessary litigation which he brought upon the party. 

The statement reads, “You will recall that the former Governor of Anambra State alongside the current Governor of Abia State, Dr Alex Otti had in September last year, convened an illegal stakeholders meeting in Umuahia where they plotted to change the Barrister Julius Abure led executive. 

“Both leaders had also handpicked some of their cronies including Senator Esther Nenadi Usman and Senator Darlington Nwokocha as Chairman and Secretary, respectively, of their stakeholders. But the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, denied them recognition which resulted in their approaching both the lower and appeal courts where they lost. The Obi funded group has vowed to approach the Supreme Court to appeal the judgement of the Appeal Court.”

Dr Elaigwu however, cautioned on the far reaching implication of sustaining the crisis when most other serious political parties are already strategizing ahead of the 2027 general election.

READ ALSO: Kalu pledges support for initiatives to boost…

“If Peter Obi thinks that he wants to destroy the party before moving to other political party as it is been said everywhere now that he is negotiating with another political party, and that the game plan is to systematically destroy the LP completely, before moving to another party, he must have known that, as he is fighting the party he is fighting himself and as he is working to destroy the party in this unfair manner, he is also destroying himself. 

“We actually thought that Obi is different from most other traditional politicians. What exactly have Abure and his executives done to deserve this back-stabbing? Obi was frustrated out of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP and Abure offered him a platform in the Labour Party. 

“Ask Obi how much he paid to the party for the Presidential ticket? This is the only Presidential candidate of a major political party that could not donate ordinary bicycle to the party for campaign, even up till this moment. 

“He refused to fund the party, yet, this same party has even contemplated making him the sole candidate for the 2027 Presidential election, yet he is busy funding crisis in the party. 

“What a good leader would have done is, given the momentum of the 2023 Presidential election, he should have consolidated the progress made, irrespective of the imperfection that may have been in the party. 

“He was expected to consolidate, strengthen the Party and get ready for 2027. Winning election is a game of number, but Obi is busy bringing up strategies to destroy the established structure and reduce the numerical strength of the party. 

“If he is in anyway, planning to dump the Party as has been speculated elsewhere, we urge him to do so without further delay. He does not need to destroy the Party before moving ahead. 

“The party having tangentially grown and has become very popular in the last few years, will certainly not lack equally credible human material to flag its flags in the 2027 general election.”

The group however, called on Obi to halt any further attempts to approach the Supreme Court to appeal the judgements of the lower courts which have affirmed Abure and his executive.

“We also demand that Obi within the next forty eight hours, call Abure to a round table for necessary truce so as to salvage this party. Nigerians believe so much on the Party as the other two big political parties have failed us. We cannot afford to lose this golden opportunity,” the statement added.