The Deputy National Chairman of the Labour Party, Dr Ayo
Olorunfemi, has advised the 2023 LP presidential candidate to ignore all calls
to dump the party ahead of the 2027 general election.
Olorunfemi, also the LP Candidate in the 2024 Ondo
governorship election, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos
that Obi should rather focus on rebuilding the party.
NAN reports that some quarters have called on Obi to leave
the party and join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
One of those making the calls, Mr Segun Sowunmi,a former PDP
governorship candidate in Ogun,said during a television interview on Thursday
that Obi’s return to his former party would brighten the PDP’s chances in 2027.
According to Sowunmi,Obi, who left the PDP for the Labour
Party ahead of the 2023 Presidential election, owes much of his national
political recognition to his time at PDP.
Olorunfemi, who noted that though Obi was at liberty under
the law to associate with any political party of his choice, said he needed to be wary of what he called dangerous
advances.
He said: “Now that he has contested and he has seen the LP
force, if he decides to go to another political party, it will then speak
volumes of his intention.
“It will tell whether he truly believed in the ideology of
the Labour Party before coming to run, or he just wanted to use the opportunity
of the platform.
“So, it will now be left
for Nigerians to decide whether Obi ,who got millions of votes under the
Labour Party, can still be voted for under PDP or another party.
“He (Obi) must use his tongue to count his teeth. If I were
he , what I will be doing now is working to restore peace in Labour Party and
rebuild it
“He should find a way to resolve the issues in the party and
remain on the platform. He should remain in the party and restore peace.He
should stay and resolve the crises he and others created in LP.
“Moving around will portray him as an opportunistic
politician not different from these politicians jumping here and there,” he
said.
Noting that Obi had the capacity to resolve the crisis in
Labour Party, Olorunfemi said that some aspirants shelved their ambitions in
2022 to allow Obi use the LP platform to run for president.
He, however, said that if Obi decided to dump the LP, the
party would continue to exist as a strong opposition party.
Speaking on the leadership crisis in the party, Olorunfemi
said that Mr Julius Abure-led LP National Working Committee (NWC) never wronged
Obi and others fighting against it.
He said that members of the NWC, including himself, risked
their lives and endured vitriolic attacks from different groups and persons for
supporting Obi’s presidential ambition in the last election.
“What is the offence of Abure? He stood in the sun, stood in
the rain. All of us in the NWC stood by him (Obi). In spite of all the attacks,
we stood by him.
“My own people, in the course of fighting for him (Obi)
,called me names for fighting for for someone not from my tribe. LP is blind to
ethnicity and I supported him because
believe in politics devoid of ethnic sentiment.
“There is bound to be crisis. People will come with
different things in mind, but we have to moderate everything like we are doing
now in LP
“Everything we are doing in the Labour Party is in line with
our constitution.That is our strength.
“Anybody that wants to challenge the authority of the NWC
should challenge it to the constitution.
“They should show us the aspect of the constitution that has
been violated.If they confront us with the facts ,then we will agree with
them,” the chieftain said.
NAN reports that the party has been enmeshed in leadership
crisis since it lost in the 2023 election
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