The visit of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in last year’s elections, Peter Obi, to the national headquarters of the party has generated conflicting reactions.
This is as his spokesman and that of the party exchanged quickfire statements contradicting each other over the purpose and outcome of the meeting, even as the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) insisted that its position on the validity of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) remained unchanged.
Daily Trust reports that Obi visited LP’s headquarters in Abuja on a solidarity visit on Tuesday and was received by the party’s national chairman, Julius Abure, and other party leaders.
His visit was seen as a change of heart towards the Abure-led NWC of the party after his absence at the party’s controversial national convention had raised dust.
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However, on Wednesday, Dr Yunusa Tanko, the spokesman for Obi, said his principal’s visit to the LP secretariat was reconciliatory and not an endorsement of Abure or group interest in the party, as he also met with the NLC/TUC Political Arm.
Dr Tanko said Obi had repeatedly maintained that his interest was to carry everybody along into one strong family and not to endorse anyone’s interest.
He said Obi also plans to meet with other critical stakeholders, like the leadership of the Obidient Movement, to have an all-inclusive political family with a common dream of rescuing Nigeria.
Reacting to Tanko’s statement, however, the LP National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, warned Obi’s spokesman against twisting the well-intentioned visit of his principal.
He said while the visit had been termed an endorsement in certain quarters, the party cherishes the visit, whatever the nomenclature, as a positive wind-blowing on the party.
“We urge the NLC and its Political Commission to understand that we are not the foe and to see us as an ally in the battle to rescue Nigeria,” he added.
But the leadership of the NLC on Wednesday maintained that there is still an existing leadership vacuum in the LP, saying it has never in any way rescinded its decision to reclaim the party from those it described as “imposters.”
Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja, the Chairman, NLC Political Commission, Comrade Titus Amba, said they won’t be distracted from their mission to take over the party from Abure and others.
Amba added that their earlier resolve to set up committees that would conduct congresses and the National Convention to fill the leadership vacuum in the Labour Party was still ongoing, insisting that the tenure of the Abure-led NWC had since elapsed.