Obi speaks on merger talks with Atiku, Kwankwaso

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, has spoken about the report that he was in talks with his counterpart in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) for a possible merger to wrestle power from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

A report had earlier emerged that the trio were in talks for a possible merger to wrestle power from the APC-led government ahead of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal judgement.

Speaking to Labour Party’s supporters at a mega rally of the party ahead of the local government elections in Edo State on Monday, August 21, 2023, Obi described the report, which has since been eliciting reactions from Nigerians, as rumours.

The LP standard-bearer said: “Labour Party will continue to grow. We will continue to go stronger and better. Half of the things you are hearing everywhere are rumours, don’t listen to them.

“We are committed to building a better and a new Nigeria where we will move Nigeria from consumption to production.”

It would be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on March 1, 2023, announced that Bola Tinubu of the APC won the presidential election ahead of 17 other candidates that participated in the election.

It declared that Tinubu scored 8,794,726 votes to defeat the two major contenders – Atiku of the PDP, who came second with 6,984,520 votes, and Obi of the Labour Party, who came third with 6,101,533 votes.

Kwankwaso, on the other hand, came a distant fourth with 1,496,687 votes.

However, dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, both Atiku and Obi approached the court to invalidate it.

The duo, in their separate petitions, claimed that they won the presidential poll, as they challenged Tinubu’s eligibility to contest the election.

The petitioners prayed the court to nullify the election and order a fresh presidential election, with the exclusion of President Tinubu whom they argued was ab-initio, not qualified to participate.

The Star

Segun Ojo