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By Myke Agunwa
The Deputy National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Dr Ayo Olorunfemi has advised the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Peter Obi to ignore calls to return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Olorunfemi, who flew the Ondo State governorship flag of the PDP in the 2024 election advised Obi to focus on rebuilding the party.
A Chieftain of PDP, Chief Dan Ulasi who is also one of the biggest critics of Obi, recently called on him to return to the PDP following the dwindling fortunes of the party and the defection haemorrhage that affected it lately.
Similarly, the Ogun State PDP governorship candidate in 2023 Segun Sowunmi also lent his voice to the call for Obi to return to his former party arguing that it would brighten the chances of the PDP in 2027.
Sowunmi argued that Obi, who left the PDP for LP ahead of the 2023 presidential election, owes much of his national political recognition to his time in the PDP.
But Olorunfemi, in a statement on Sunday noted that though Obi was at liberty under the law to associate with any political party of his choice, 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 him, what I would be doing now is working to restore peace in the 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 the politicians jumping here and there.’’
While noting that Obi can resolve the crisis, Olorunfemi said that some aspirants shelved their ambitions in 2022 to allow him to use the LP platform to contest the presidency.
He, however, said that if Obi decides to dump the LP, the party would continue to exist as a strong opposition party.
Speaking on the leadership crisis in the party, Mr Olorunfemi said that the Julius Abure-led LP National Working Committee (NWC) did no wrong to Obi and others fighting him.
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 during 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). Despite all the attacks, we stood by him. My people, while fighting for him (Obi), called me names for fighting for someone who is not from my tribe.
“LP is blind to ethnicity, and I supported him because I believe in politics devoid of ethnic sentiment. There is bound to be a crisis. People will come with different things in mind, but we must moderate everything like we are doing now in the LP.
”Everything we are doing in the Labour Party is in line with our constitution. That is our strength. Anybody who 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.
The party has been enmeshed in a leadership crisis since it lost the presidential 2023 election.