Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s (LP) presidential candidate for the general elections of 2023, has provided an explanation for his absence from the party’s just-completed National Convention, which took place in Nnewi, his home state of Anambra State.
Speaking on Saturday on X (previously Twitter) during a conversation facilitated by Parallel Facts, Obi said he is more committed to creating “a new Nigeria” than creating a new record label.
He voiced his displeasure that the National Working Committee (NWC), led by Julius Abure, had disregarded his recommendation to consult more after significant stakeholders had voiced concerns prior to the convention.
“We promised to build Nigeria; we did not promise to build a New Labour Party. When the chairman approached me about the convention, I appealed to him to consult all stakeholders, starting from Governor (Alex) Otti, Vice Presidential Candidate (Yusuf) Datti, to Senators, House of Reps members, gubernatorial candidates, and all other groups, for us to have NLC, TUC,” Obi said.
“It is documented for us to have a properly organized convention, starting with congresses, because we have to organize ourselves at the grassroots, where we have problems. It is after we organize ourselves that we can go into the convention,” he added.
Obi added that there was supposed to have been a stakeholders’ meeting where positions would have been decided upon in order to take into account the diverse interests of the party, but that meeting never took place.
Additionally, he gave an explanation for his lack of public remarks to date regarding Abure’s alleged financial impropriety.
“It is because we have written to a competent, qualified auditor to audit the accounts of the Labour Party and our campaign,” Obi said.
He demanded that all organizations or entities connected to his campaign submit an accounting of the funds received and the campaign’s expenditures.
The former governor of Anambra State threatened to “punish them” if they did not provide an accounting of the money raised in his and the campaign’s names.
