A member of the OK Movement, Justin Ijeh, has said members of the group rejected the parallel Presidential Campaign Council announced by John Ogulu, insisting they stand with Peter Obi’s position on the leadership dispute.

The development follows a leadership dispute within the OK Movement, with former Bayelsa State Governor and party leader Seriake Dickson also weighing in on the matter and backing the position that the group’s internal leadership structure should not be confused with the official party campaign machinery.

Speaking in an interview on Arise News on Friday, Ijeh stated that the OK Movement now aligns with Peter Obi’s position on the disputed Presidential Campaign Council, distancing itself from the structure announced by John Ogulu.

“The leader of our party, Senator Dixon, has spoken to this issue, and everything that he said, I fully align with. His Excellency Mr. Peter Obi was with you, and he spoke to this same issue; everything that he said is correct, and I fully align with it.

“We fully align and stand with the position of the leader of the party and the candidate of the party on the presidential ticket on the issue.”

Ijeh disclosed that the leadership crisis began when the movement’s then Director-General, John Ogulu, went rogue, leading to disagreements within the leadership and the emergence of a parallel leadership structure.

He also explained that Peter Obi had intervened in the crisis and asked all parties to step down, resulting in the dissolution of the movement’s executive steering committee, not the OK Movement itself.

“At the height of the controversy that broke out within the leadership structure, where we had the substantive DG at the time, Mr. John Ogulu, essentially going rogue, some of us in the leadership tried to resolve the issues with him, and we were not successful. Some other senior members of the movement took issue with him, and as it were, there was a split in leadership. Another DG was announced at the time.

“Interventions were had behind the scenes, and let me make it categorically clear: His Excellency Peter Obi got involved at some point and asked all parties to step down from their leadership positions. In other words, substantively, the executive steering committee of the movement was dissolved—not the movement, let me be clear. The leadership organs at the national level of the movement in the midst of the crisis were asked by His Excellency to step down, and an oversight committee was appointed to look into the issues and chart a course forward.”

He added that many of the movement’s founding members were not involved in Ogulu’s activities or the announcement of the PCC, stressing that they did not support the structure.

“His Excellency Peter Obi, he made it very clear: on the issue of the PCC which was announced by Mr. John Ogulu and a new group of people who he constituted as his EXCO, we were not part of that. A lot of us who were originating members of the movement were not privy to his activities, were not privy to that announcement, do not support it.

“It is my understanding also that in the coming days, we will get a substantive pronouncement of the new leadership structure of the OK Movement.”

On the strength of the movement’s grassroots structures, Ijeh said the leadership crisis had not affected its operations across the country, noting that members of the Obidient and Kwankwasiyya movements remained focused on mobilising support and preparing for the election.

“I assure you—and do not take my word for it—look at the events that we organize, look at the things that are happening in the North. The Kwankwasiyya are on the ground doing the work that needs to be done. Those of us from the Obidient Movement whose loyalties, whose passions, whose understanding of the issues that are germane to the Nigerian people are doing the things that we were supposed to do.

“So, we are very focused, we have an election to win, and we are happy and grateful to His Excellency Peter Obi for standing up a few days ago and making the clarifications that we needed him to do. He has done that, and we are charting a path forward.”

Addressing concerns over Ogulu’s supporters, Ijeh said the group backing the disputed PCC was insignificant compared with the wider membership of the movement, insisting that members remained focused on grassroots mobilisation rather than positions on the campaign council.

“The vast majority of the people are focused. Whatever amount of people, which is infinitesimal compared to the teeming supporters of this movement, are not enough to move the needle. Wherever we find them, we are isolating them from what we are doing.”

On the movement’s membership strength, Ijeh said the OK Movement maintains registers from the ward level but declined to disclose figures, describing the numbers as part of its electoral strategy.

He added that many members had also registered with the party and become embedded in its structures ahead of the elections.

“I would then be discussing things that impinge or border on our electoral strategy, so I would answer: yes, we have membership registers down from the ward level. A lot of us are also already embedded in the party structures at various levels. Am I going to give you a numerical value to indicate our strength? I would rather not.

“The trigger that created that change in mindshift was the fact that we needed to become party members to be able to vote for our candidates in the primaries. So what then happened was we saw a drive. We actually did activations and campaigns. If you search online, you would see evidence of that in flyers that went out; we created campaign assets asking people to go and register in the party.

“So we actually did see a mass movement of people from Kwankwasiyya, from the movement, from the Obidient Movement becoming members of the party and becoming candidates on the ballot.

“So we’ve had that shift. We have become embedded in the party, we believe in the party’s mission, we believe in the party’s focus, and even though there was an adjustment period, for the most part, people have settled in and understand now that we needed to make a transition from activism and being a pressure group into now becoming party men and women. That is an ongoing process, but we are well on the way and well-situated within the party.” (AriseNews TV)