The Obi-Datti Media Office described the report as ridiculous and fake.
The media arm of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council has refuted the report claiming that its presidential candidate, Peter Obi is quitting the election exercise slated for February 25.
The Obi-Datti Media Office described the report as ridiculous and fake.
The office accused some unnamed political parties of putting Obi’s image on gift items to give Nigerians the impression that the LP candidate is trying to win votes through inducements.
There have been reports that Obi would step down for the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar. Obi was Atiku’s running mate in the 2019 presidential election under the platform of the PDP.
Bola Tinubu is the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress while Rabiu Kwankwaso is the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party.
However, the media office in a statement issued by the media office on Friday,
The statement reads, “Nothing can be more absurd than the fact that 18 persons are in a marathon to pick a trophy and somebody is suggesting that the front runner in the race who is already sighting the trophy wants to step down for somebody behind.
“The fact that other parties contesting for the president have been cloning the LP candidate in their corruptly induced gift items like bags of rice, posters and billboards speak volumes of who is the man to beat in this race.
“Since June 2022 when Obi emerged as the flag bearer of the Labour Party alongside other presidential contestants, the Labour Party and its presidential campaign have increased in leaps and bounds attracting both local and global attention. The truth is that Peter Obi’s performance is now the standard by which other contestants and their parties are being measured.
“The fact that the other parties struggle to associate their own candidates with Obi, even without his consent, says it all who should be associated with withdrawing or discontinuing in the race.
“In an ideal clime where respect is accorded to merit and other audacious qualifications, other presidential candidates should have honourably thrown in the towel.
“What those flying the unreasonable and ridiculous kite are trying to achieve which appeared dead on arrival, is firstly to give themselves the fake hope that they are in the race to win; secondly to distract and remove our candidate’s eye from the ball where it’s already glued to and thirdly, to inject confusion in the mind of the public.
“After being confirmed to be ahead by four scientifically conducted opinion polls, it would be laughable to suggest even as a joke that Obi is considering stepping down, for who, for God’s sake?
“But we understand their handicap of living in the past and refusing to buy into the raging idea whose time has come that the most vibrant and vigorous arm of the country’s populace, the youths are resolute and already charged to take back their country and that they have found in the LP standard bearer, Obi the right man for this journey whose destination is already known.
“It’s either that the purveyors of this ignoble news are incomprehensible and unintelligible about the developing political dynamics in the country or that they are clear agents of mischief hoping to inject confusion in the polity.”
“Given what is in the political space around the leading presidential candidates since the electioneering, it’s crystal clear that the obviously established filthy and disgustingly dirty candidates should be the ones who should be bowing out to give way for the revolution whose time has come,” the statement added.
