National Coordinator of the Obidient Movement, Tanko Yunusa, has insisted there are no cracks in the group after some members kicked against Peter Obi’s endorsement of Olumide Akpata as the Labour Party candidate in the just concluded Edo State governorship election.
Yunusa, who spoke with NewsNGR, also dismissed factional LP chairman, Julius Abure’s claim that Obi was responsible for the party’s loss in the poll.
NewsNGR reports that ahead of the Edo gubernatorial poll, some groups within the Obidient Movement openly opposed Obi’s support for Akpata as LP candidate.
A group within the movement, Obidients United For Equity, Justice and Fairness, had accused Obi of unilaterally adopting Akpata as the candidate of the LP, thereby jettisoning the principles of internal democracy.
The leader of the group, Blessing Edobor, in a statement faulted Obi’s support for Akpata, who she alleged to be a cousin to Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki.
The group also noted that Obi’s support for Akpata, who, like Obaseki is from Edo South, was against the principle of power rotation, and undermined calls for power shift to Edo Central – from where the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, picked their candidates.
The group said: “Peter Obi left the PDP when it became obvious that Atiku Abubakar was going to win the PDP primaries, and he along with his supporters in the PDP thought that it was only fair for power to shift to the South after Buhari’s 8 years. How come it doesn’t matter to him that after 8 years of Godwin Obaseki, Olumide Akpata his cousin from the same Edo South zone cannot and should not for the sake of Equity, Fairness and Justice be Governor?”
Also, weeks before the poll, a governorship aspirant and prominent member of the Obidient Movement in Edo State, Lucky Obiyan, at a press conference announced that he and his supporters would not support Akpata, despite Obi’s endorsement of the LP candidate.
“We have come to tell the Edo people and the Edos in Diaspora that the Obidient Movement washes its hands like Pontius Pilate in the Bible clean from Edo Labour Party and its candidate Olumide Akpata,” he said.
The refusal of these Obidient Movement groups and members to toe Peter Obi’s line in the Edo election suggested that cracks have emerged in the movement which propelled Obi, as Labour Party presidential candidate, to finish third in the 2023 presidential election with a total of 6,101,533 votes.
But, reacting to the development, Tanko insisted that there was no crack in the Obidient Movement. He noted that Obi only supported the party’s choice as a loyal party man.
“There is no crack. Right from the beginning the party did not clearly stipulate who will be the candidate. That created a lot of misunderstanding within that particular period. But that was settled. You know as a leader of a political party, once a party has agreed that this is their candidate for election, it is expected that people would gravitate towards that particular person.
“So it is a matter of making a choice, of being loyal to the party’s decision or being against the party’s decision. So it is actually the issue of the party that became a stumbling block. But as regards to Peter Obi himself, he has always been a loyal party member. And then he did what he had to do to give support to what the party has already chosen even though it may be against his own personal interests.
“As a loyal person and a party member you must follow your party’s choice and give it the full backing.”
Asked if he meant that Akpata was not Peter Obi’s choice, Tanko said, “It is not to say that it is not his own choice. In a party movement, there will always be arguments, back and forth, and the decision is always on the party. So this particular position rests on the party’s choice and you as a party member you can give your own suggestions and whether it is carried or not, you have to give your own support as is necessary.”
“People are giving him (Peter Obi) kudos for even supporting the choice of the party,” Tanko added.
Speaking on the Obidient Movement groups and members that kicked against Obi’s support for Akpata, Tanko said, “As individuals, they have the right but as a collective, we made a decision on where we want to go and we came out and gave our support. Sometimes you give your support and you may be right, sometimes you give your support and you may be wrong. But as long as you give that support collectively, the good and the bad that comes with it, you shoulder it as a leader.”
In the wake of the Edo election, the Julius Abure faction had, in a statement by Publicity Secretary, Abayomi Arabambi, claimed that Obi and Abia State governor, Alex Oti’s “high handedness, love for power grabbing, abrasive approach and betrayal of the National Working Committee under Abure and the Secretary, Alhaji Farouk Umar Ibrahim”, contributed to the Labour Party’s loss.
Tanko dismissed the claim.
He said, “I wouldn’t want to comment on that but like I told you earlier, the party made that particular choice. So why would you blame Peter Obi? It was not Peter Obi who made the choice. It was the party. Why would you blame someone when you have been asked to select somebody who will represent you? Peter Obi is just a member, and he supported the person that you chose. So where will you lay the blame?”