Peter Obi, Otti Desperate To Hijack Labour Party – National Secretary

A faction of the Labour Party (LP) has described the National Executive Committee (NEC) convened by the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi and the Governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, as illegal.

In a statement by its National Secretary, Umar Farouk Ibrahim, the Party claimed that Obi and Otti are trying to hijack the LP’s structure.

Naija News reports that on Wednesday, Otti led a high-level LP delegation to INEC headquarters in Abuja to discuss key developments within the party.

During the visit to INEC, Governor Otti formally presented a Certified True Copy of the recent Supreme Court judgment concerning the party’s leadership.

Reacting to the development, Ibrahim said the visit exposed Obi and Otti’s desperation to hijack the leadership of the party.

He said, “The attention of the leadership of the Labour Party has been drawn to an illegal NEC meeting convened by Dr Alex Otti, the Abia State Governor and Peter Obi, Labour Party’s former Presidential candidate wherein they have continued to live in an unhealthy paradise and deluding themselves.

“At the end of their illegal meeting in Abuja today, Mr. Peter Obi led other party outlaws to the Headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in attempt to pressure the electoral Commission to take illegal action against our party leadership.

“The mission has shown the high level of desperation of Peter Obi and Dr. Alex Otti in trying to hijack the structure of the party. If really the Supreme Court decision is in their favour, why are they rushing to INEC to be putting undue influence on the Commission to do the wrong thing.

“Also in their meeting today, they also boasted of wanting to give the National Chairman, Barrister Abure a soft landing by offering him the position of the Chairman, Board of Trustees. But unfortunately for them, Abure didn’t make himself the National Chairman, therefore it is not about Abure but about what the structures have said. It is about the supremacy of the organs of party and it is about doing things right.

“We therefore condemned that illegal meeting and we call on our members and the general public to disregard the meeting and its outcome.”