Leaders of the Labour Party(LP) in the Southwest region have predicted the presidential candidate of the party, Mr. Peter Obi, will not score up to 1,000 votes in the region.
The Southwest LP leaders gave the verdict shortly before they collapsed the entire party’s structure into the ruling All Progressives Congress.
They said the LP was not in the race to win any election but to garner money.
Leader of the party in the Southwest, Omotoso Banji, who led other leaders to join the All Progressives Congress(APC), described the LP as a shaky platform.
Other leaders of LP that defected were the party’s chairman in Osun State Tunde Omotunde and his Ekiti State counterpart, Alabi Adeeyo; Ondo Secretary of LP, Omowumi Olosola, Stella Alabi from Lagos State amongst others.
Omotoso said leaders of Southwest LP decided to quit the party because it was not viable and lacked the clout to win the 2023 elections.
He said: “Labour Party presently is a shaky platform for anybody to contest, Labour Party is a failure platform for anybody to contest, I don’t know Peter Obi and I’m less concerned about him but I’m concerned about those celebrating the Labour Party mediocre within Nigeria.
“In view of this, we leaders 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.
“Labour Party is not ready to serve Nigeria and that is why we decided to leave the party and come together with the APC. I collapsed the structures of the party in Ekiti state. So, I don’t know how the Obi can come now and embarrass us here in the South-West.
“We are the pillars of that party in the South-West, and to the glory of God Almighty, we have pulled down the structures today. I was so surprised to hear from the DG of the party, Akin Osuntokun, we don’t know him in Labour Party, Akin Osuntokun is representing his own personal interest.
“So, it is better for you, Akin Osuntokun to come back to the APC and work for Bola Tinubu. I’m here to talk to you Yorubas, to please support Tinubu because he is our own. If you don’t vote for Tinubu, you’re a bastard to Yoruba land.
“We are leaving and collapsing the Labour Party structures in the entire South-West through Senator Dayo Adeyeye into APC. Nobody born of good parents in Yoruba land that will bypass Tinubu and vote for another party.”
Omotunde said they decided not to waste their time in the LP again.
“They are not after winning the election but to share the money. Politics started at the unit level. To win an election, you must start from the unit. Obi cannot go anywhere. There is no way the LP will fly. Asiwaju Tinubu will win this election.”
Receiving the defectors,
National Coordinator of SWAGA 2023, Dayo Adeyeye, however, charged them and others APC members across the South-West to go back to their various polling units and canvass votes for Tinubu.
According to Adeyeye: “Tinubu is a man of passion, action and vision, who is ready to transform this country and whether they like it or not, Tinubu is going to win.”
Adeyeye urged the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, to heed advised by the Council of State on the current new naira note scarcity.
The former LP leaders and members tore their membership cards.
