L-R: Datti Baba-Ahmed and Peter Obi in Benue State on Wednesday, November 9, 2022.
The Labour Party (LP) believes its presidential candidate Peter Obi will clinch the country’s number one seat in next year’s election despite the crisis in the party.
The Ogun State chapter of the party suspended the Director-General of its presidential campaign Doyin Okupe, a move which was overruled by the national body of the LP.
But speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, a member of the Labour Party legal team Joe-Oke Onuakalusi says with the former Anambra State governor, his party is sure to win.
When asked if the party is strong enough to handle internal disputes, he said: “It is [strong enough]. When the head is correct, the body will be equally correct.
“You can understand that in Kenya, Ruto came on board just like Peter Obi is emerging and he won and is going to do excellently well,” he said on the show.
“So, we are bent on winning the 2023 election, and by the time Peter emerges come February 2023, we are putting Nigeria on the right track. We have the structure and the best hands and Peter is cruising to victory.”
He noted that the suspensions in the party are basically an internal affair which is not peculiar to the Labour Party.
“Every party has its own constitution and internal affairs. If any party member goes contrary to it, they have the right to a disciplinary procedure and if that one takes place, it becomes a party affair,” he added.
The lawyer faulted Okupe’s suspension, saying only the presidential candidate of the party has the right to appoint his campaign organisation’s director general.
“He (director general, in this case, Okupe) must not be a member of the party; being a member of the party is an addendum but it is the prerogative of the presidential candidate (Obi to appoint his DG),” Onuakalusi noted.
According to him, only the ward leaders have the power to suspend a member and not the state leadership as done by the Ogun State chapter of the party.
“So, it is laughable for a group of men to say, ‘We have expelled you from the party’,” the Labour Party chieftain maintained.
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