Peter Obi cannot win; surrounded by mediocres, LP South-West chair says after joining APC

Banji Omotoso, former South-West Chairman of Labour Party (LP), says Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the party, will not win the February 25 election. 

“Labour Party is not ready to serve Nigeria, that is why we decided to leave the party and come to the APC.

“I collapsed the structure of the party in Ekiti state. So, I don’t know how (Peter) Obi can win now. He’s even embarrassing us here in the South-West,” he said. 

Mr Omotoso made this assertion on Monday while defecting to the All Progressives Congress (APC). 

“Labour Party presently is a shaky platform for anybody to contest. LP is a failure platform for anybody to also contest. I don’t know Peter Obi and I am less concerned about him but concern about those who are celebrating the LP’s mediocre within Nigeria,” Mr Omotoso said. 

“We leaders and members of the Labour Party in the South-West have decided to leave the party because we have a lot of mediocre there and what they are looking for is money. They are not ready to serve Nigeria,” he added. 

Mr Omotoso’s assertion came barely 48 hours after Mr Obi rounded up his campaign tour in Lagos. 

Leading other former South-West LP members to the APC, Mr Omotoso insisted that the opposition party cannot win the February 25 presidential election. 

He said that he and other defectors would now support Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the APC.  

He said that the director general of the LP presidential campaign, Akin Osuntokun, was not known in the party and was “representing his own personal interest.”

He asked Mr Osuntokun to “come back to the APC and work for Bola Tinubu,” to support the ruling party’s flag bearer “because he is our own”. 

Earlier, the defectors tore their LP membership cards, while promising to work for Mr Tinubu at the polls. 

National Coordinator of the South West Agenda For Asiwaju Tinubu (SWAGA) 2023, Dayo Adeyeye, while receiving the decampees, said their defection would serve as a boost for the APC.