LP debunks claim as Keyamo mocks Obi

The Spokesman of Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko, has denied collapsing its South West structure in favour of the ruling All Progressives Congress.

This is even as Tanko’s counterpart in the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, called the LP flag bearer, Peter Obi, a ‘joker’ for nursing a belief that he can win the February 25 presidential poll.

Both parties spoke with our correspondent in separate interviews on Monday evening.

Their reactions came on the heels of a report that an alleged LP South-West Chairman, Omotoso Banji, led some party members to collapse its structure because it ‘lacked the clout to win the forthcoming general election.’

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But Tanko told The PUNCH that the report was false.

He said, “It is wrong information. There is nothing like LP collapsing structure for anybody in the South West. Is there a different South West we don’t know about?

“It is just a creation of some disgruntled elements and irrelevant persons who just want to cause disharmony in our party. Nobody is decamping from our camp to anywhere. Our structure in the South West is still very much intact.”

Keyamo, on the other hand, believed that the ‘Mama, Papa and Pikin’ party is living in denial.

“The voting day is getting very closer and people are beginning to see the light. It is sad that the LP that prides itself on wanting to change Nigeria is referring to some members leaving the party as irrelevant.

“We welcome those who just collapsed the structure into the APC. They have seen the light after discovering that they were on a journey to nowhere with the Labour Party. I repeat it for the umpteenth time that LP cannot and will not win,” he said.

While stating that Obi stands no chance in the presidential election, the Minister of State for Labour likened his situation to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), who failed on three occasions before winning the 2015 elections.

According to him, Obi would need more than luck to win the poll with his perceived ‘One and a half’ regional votes.

He said, “At the height of the election, Buhari cleared the North West, North East and North Central, yet could not win.

“Not to talk of Peter Obi whose support base is numerically weak in terms of voting strength. How does he want to win? He has only one and a half regions where the people are passionate about him.

“He only has the South-East support but the South-South would be shared equally with the PDP. I said it before and I am saying it again.

“Peter Obi is a joker. Candidates are going to stadia to the campaign, they will rather choose a drive to a crowded small space, especially places where your ethnic people are. It is disgraceful, to say the least.”