2027: Forget LP, Apapa Faction Tells Obi

Peter Obi should forget the Labour Party, LP, in his plan to contest the 2027 presidential election, a faction in the party has told him.

The party is currently factionalised between the Lamidi Apapa and Julius Abure factions who are now struggling for its soul. They are in court to assert their control.

Obi, who came third in the February 25 presidential election has gone to the Supreme Court, the nation’s apex court after the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, ruled two weeks ago in favour of Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, that he won the contested election.

Not a few have suggested that Obi has the intension to run again on the platform of LP in 2027.
But the LP faction under Apapa has told him to forget his plan to realise his ambition through the party.
The spokesman for the faction, Abayomi Arabambi, made this known on Wednesday to Punch, saying it has already started to prepare for the election, and Obi is not part of their arrangement.

Arabambi said, “My advice is for him (Obi) to go and start preparing for 2027. But it has to be in another party, not in LP. We are not going to allow this kind of rascality to continue in 2027. We will look for a fresh candidate as far as we are concerned.

“Obi is free to go back to APGA to run, not Labour Party. We don’t want to continue accommodating a character who believes no other person, other than himself, has anything upstairs. He is not a good manager of human resources. That was why he lost woefully.

“Let me ask Obi who is accusing President Bola Tinubu of certificate fraud this question. Obi claimed he has a B.Sc. Did he present the B.Sc in his form? Was it not the school certificate he wrote there? Why is he hiding his own B.Sc? That is because he knew they could subpoena the vice chancellor or the registrar to come and confirm its authenticity.”

But the spokesman for Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko, dismissed Arabambi’s threat, saying “They (the Apapa faction) don’t own Labour Party. That’s why I don’t want to take issues with them. There is no need to give these people attention.”

On August 14, the Edo division of the Court of Appeal declared Apapa as the authentic National Chairman of the Labour Party.