Obinna Okafor, a contender for the Labour Party’s (LP) nomination for the Anambra State House of Assembly seat representing Oyi state, has provided an explanation of why Peter Obi, the LP’s presidential candidate, as well as other notable PDP members, defected to the LP.
The PDP did not treat the South-East zone fairly since the start of this current regime in 1999, according to Okafor, who made the remark over the weekend during the New Yam Festival of his Nkwelle-Ezunaka community in the Oyi Local Government Area.
Okafor continued by saying that Peter Obi and other PDP chieftains had been loyal to the party and had cast a large number of votes for it more than other geopolitical zones, but they had decided to leave the party collectively after learning that the southeast geopolitical zone had not been treated fairly.
“The first time we believed it was our turn was in 1999,” says Okafor, “when the late Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, ran for President but it was given to Obasanjo to pacify the South West because of the death of MKO Abiola.
“This 2023 election should be the southeast’s second opportunity, but somewhere along the line, PDP ruined it, and several progressives like myself defected to the Labour Party as a result.”
Regarding the current intra-PDP crisis, the House of Assembly candidate reaffirmed that one could not build a house and then leave it for another person to live in.
To support his claim, he said: “We are suffering today because people like Tambuwal, Atiku Abubakar, Saraki, and Rotimi Amaechi deserted the PDP for the APC in 2015 to support President Muhammadu Buhari.
“We had Wike, who stood his ground and uplifted the party financially, morally and got the party to where it is today. If there is anything like inheritance, Wike should inherit the Presidential ticket of the PDP and not Atiku Abubakar. Should Wike be the Presidential candidate of PDP? Yes!”
Speaking further, he said, “Why should we have another Muslim Northerner in a circular state like Nigeria?” He said, “The North, under President Muhammadu Buhari, is about rounding up for the South to take over.”
The one thing that is constant in life is change, the author continued, “from where we share money to where we engage people, ‘Obedient.”
