• As party’s chieftain blames Obi for lawmakers’ defection to APC
Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, has said that the leadership crisis rocking the Labour Party (LP) should not worry members, supporters, admirers and even potential members, asserting that it would soon be resolved and re-strengthened.
He described the scenario as normal in party politics, urging members to continue to love one another, pray for the leaders and for God to facilitate. It was gathered that amicable resolution of the crisis is ongoing at different fora, levels and factions.
Otti spoke yesterday while flagging off the reconstruction of the13 kilometre Onuinyang -Okporoenyi-Amuro- Oboro to Ikwuano rural road, running across the agriculture/food-rich communities of Bende and Ikwuano councils.
The road had dilapidated over the years due to neglect by successive governments of the state despite its high economic importance. During the ceremony, the governor told me not to worry about the Labour Party. He said: “It is normal political party disagreement. We shall re-agree after disagreeing. So, nothing do us, it is normal, so it is in party politics.”
In his address at the ceremony which he titled, “ No part of Abia State will be left behind,” Otti said that he uses roads and other infrastructure to expand the frontiers of opportunities that can create wealth.
MEANWHILE, a chieftain of the LP and leader of the Obidient Youth Ambassadors, Meche Oswald, has blamed the recent wave of defections in the party on a controversial statement made by the 2023 LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
Oswald expressed concerns that Obi’s recent remarks about the Obidient Movement’s independence from any political party contributed to the departure of LP lawmakers to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
About six LP lawmakers, last year, defected to the ruling APC. Obi had, in a Twitter post, observed that the Obidient Movement was not a directorate of any particular political party, noting that its members are free to align with different political affiliations.
But Oswald, in a statement yesterday, argued that Obi’s assertion, albeit unintentional, implies that Obidients are at liberty to affiliate with any political party or group of their choice. He linked Obi’s statement to the numerous defections of lawmakers elected under the platform of the LP to the ruling APC.