Labour Party Gives Peter Obi 48 Hours To Resign For Joining ADC, Says ‘Desperate Politicians Can’t Birth New Nigeria’

 

Labour Party Gives Peter Obi 48 Hours To Resign For Joining ADC, Says ‘Desperate Politicians Can’t Birth New Nigeria’

This comes as Obi, who has been at the forefront of the coalition, released a brief statement on the launch of the coalition on his verified X (formerly Twitter) account on Thursday morning.

The factions of the Labour Party (LP) led by Lamidi Apapa and Julius Abure have issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, demanding his resignation for joining the newly unveiled opposition coalition under the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

 

The ultimatum is contained in separate statements issued on Thursday by the factions’ National Publicity Secretaries, Dr Abayomi Arabambi (for the Apapa-led faction) and Obiora Ifoh (for the Abure-led faction).

 

This comes as Obi, who has been at the forefront of the coalition, released a brief statement on the launch of the coalition on his verified X (formerly Twitter) account on Thursday morning.

The Labour Party’s former presidential candidate said, “Yesterday, the coalition members formally adopted the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the 2027 Nigeria General Elections with Distinguished Senator David Mark serving as the National Chairman and H.E. Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola serving as the National Secretary.

 

“Our commitment is to sacrifice and work together towards the 2027 General Elections, ensuring that Nigeria gets a competent, capable, and compassionate leadership that will prioritise the nation’s future by putting the welfare of Nigerians first.”

 

The former Anambra State governor stressed, “This decision was not made lightly. It comes from deep reflection on where we are as a country and what must be done to move forward.

 

“No one group can change Nigeria alone. To dismantle the structures that keep our people in poverty and insecurity, we must build bridges, not walls even when those bridges are uneasy.”

 

But Arabambi said that “desperate politicians can’t birth a new Nigeria”.

 

He described the coalition as a ”convergence of political hawks and desperadoes under the platforms of ADC seeking to grab power at all costs for personal and selfish interests without any meaningful economic solutions to the problems facing our country”.

 

The statement said, “Our party also noticed that our former discredited self-centred former presidential candidate was in attendance while still claiming to be a member of our party.

 

“Our party considered these acts as a scam and Yahoo Yahoo plus, therefore the former presidential candidate of our party, Peter Gregory Obi has is hereby handed a 48 hour ultimatum to formally resign his membership of the Labour Party having formally joined the coalition party.”

 

The party described the members of the coalition as “power mongers whose only interest was self and not the people”.

 

It said, “The party warned Nigerians that the often mouthed ‘new Nigeria is Possible’ is a ruse and cannot be achieved with the assemblage of old, recycled, desperate and frustrated politicians in the coalition.”

 

According to Arabambi, all those who mismanaged Nigeria over the years are the ones who gathered themselves in the coalition, noting that desperate politicians can’t birth a new Nigeria.

 

He said, “We are aware of several nocturnal meetings between Peter Obi and some of our members, lobbying them to join him in his new party. We’re also aware that a number of them has refused to defect with him.

 

“Labour Party has consistently said it is not part of the coalition and therefore, any of our members who are part of the coalition are given within 48 hours to formally resign their membership of the party.

 

“Labour Party is not available for people with dual agenda, people with deceptive persona. The party will not avail itself to individuals who have one leg in one Party and another leg elsewhere. People that in the morning, they will claim to be in the Labour Party and in the evening they are in coalition.

 

“Nearly 70 percent of Nigerian population are youths who are tired of the old order, tired of gerontocrats deciding their fate. The new Nigeria that the youths are dreaming of, is not what can be realised from what we are seeing in the coalition.

 

“These people are opportunistic politicians who are only interested in relaunching themselves into circle of power, people who are desperate to continue holding on to power.”

 

Ifoh also condemned the coalition, labelling it a gathering of “recycled, desperate and frustrated politicians.”

 

He said, “Former Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Gregory Obi has received a 48-hour ultimatum to formally resign his membership of the Labour Party having formally joined the coalition party.”

 

The Abure-led faction of the Labour Party maintained that Obi’s actions betray the party’s values and threaten its cohesion.

 

“We are aware of several nocturnal meetings between Peter Obi and some of our members, lobbying them to join him in his new party. We’re also aware that a number of them have refused to defect with him,” Ifoh alleged.

 

Reiterating the party’s stance, he added, “The Labour Party has consistently said it is not part of the coalition, and therefore, any of our members who are part of the coalition are given 48 hours to formally resign their membership of the party.”

 

He emphasised that the party would not tolerate dual loyalty or what he described as a “deceptive persona.”

 

“The Labour Party is not available for people with dual agenda, people with deceptive persona,” he stated.

 

“The party will not avail itself to individuals who have one leg in one party and another leg elsewhere.

 

“People who, in the morning, claim to be in the Labour Party and in the evening are in the coalition,” he added.

 

Ifoh further argued that the coalition does not represent the aspirations of Nigeria’s youth population, who, according to him, make up nearly 70 percent of the country’s citizens.

 

“The new Nigeria that the youths are dreaming of is not what can be realised from what we are seeing in the coalition,” Ifoh said.

 

“These people are opportunistic politicians who are only interested in relaunching themselves into the circle of power, people who are desperate to continue holding on to power.”

 

He reaffirmed the party’s commitment to Nigeria’s transformation and called on all members of the Labour Party to remain loyal and uphold the party’s integrity.