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The Director-General of the Labour Party’s presidential campaign in the 2023 election, Dr Doyin Okupe, has stated that the candidate of the party, Peter Obi, betrayed the Peoples Democracy Party’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to contest the election.
According to Okupe, Obi’s presidential interest forced him to go against Atiku, who brought him into national politics.
Okupe denied the insinuation that he betrayed Obi, maintaining that he decided to withdraw his support for the LP presidential candidate because he was no longer interested in working with him.
The politician spoke in a viral video circulated on social media on Friday.
He said, “They said I betrayed Obi. No. How can I betray him? I started politics in 1978. Obi was nowhere else. My life and political destiny cannot be tied to Obi’s ambition. I wish Obi well, but I am done with him. We wanted to achieve something, but we couldn’t achieve it.
“Obi was the vice-presidential candidate of Atiku Abubakar in 2019. He brought him to the national limelight. Because of his own ambition, which was correct and due, Obi left the party and contested against Atiku. If people said I betrayed Obi, what did Obi do to Atiku? It is not fair.
“It is Obi’s interest in 2023 that made him go on a collision course against his former master. Obi was not my master; I was his supporter. If I supported him up to a point and decided to go back and be myself, how can that be an offence?”
Okupe disclosed that Pa Ayo Adebanjo, a leader of pan Yoruba group, Afenifere, persuaded him to support Obi.
According to him, he (Adebanjo) objected to the idea of a northerner succeeding former president Muhammadu Buhari, adding that he supported the move for the South to produce Nigeria’s president in 2023.
Okupe further stated that the collective decision to support Obi from the South-East was based on fairness.
The politician said, “Baba Adebanjo called me and said he heard that I wanted to contest for the presidential election, and I said yes. Baba said I was a troublemaker. I told Baba that he didn’t know what was happening in our party.
“PDP wanted a northerner to replace Buhari; that didn’t make sense to me. It made a mockery of our federalism and unity as a nation. It undermined my essence as a human being.
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