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Former Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, has given reasons for backing the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Saturday’s House of Assembly by-election to be conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Anambra State.
Obi, though a member of the LP, said he opted to support the ADC’s candidate because his own party had been excluded from participating in the poll.
Recall that INEC had excluded the LP from the list of candidates to contest the by-election.
“The clarification became necessary following the mix-up in the public space over Obi’s choice…
“Firstly, the INEC has not been able to sort out Labour Party issues in this election.
“As at the time of issuing this statement, LP has no candidate in Saturday’s bye-election slated all over the country,” the Peter Obi Media Reach (POMR) explained on Wednesday.
POMR’s Spokesman, Ibrahim Umar, explained further: “Secondly, the ADC candidate is the wife of the late Labour Party state Assembly member l, Hon. Justice Azuka, who died in the hands of kidnappers in February this year.”
He said the leadership of both the ADC and the LP resolved that in the current situation, the parties would support the candidate of the former.
POMR added, “The leadership of both ADC and LP, as well as the Labour Party Senator and House of Representatives member, Tony Nwoye and Idu Emeka, respectively, and the House of Assembly members in Onitsha-South, on compassionate grounds, deemed it fit that the capable wife should go ahead to complete the tenure of her husband.
“Where issues of candidates are not in dispute, Obi always supports Labour Party flag bearers, as in the November gubernatorial poll, where our principal’s candidate is indisputably Chief George Moghalu of the Labour Party.
“By this clarification, it lays to rest the confusion in the minds of the public, as the situation has not in any way changed Obi’s leadership of the Labour Party and his membership of the Coalition.
“We therefore need to underscore the fact that Obi’s mission for a new Nigeria is on course and possible.”
