Peter Obi won’t contest presidency under LP, party has no future. I’d like to welcome him to APC – Valentine Ozigbo
Valentine Ozigbo, Former Anambra governorship candidate and former Labour Party (LP) ally, has declared that he sees no future for the LP and believes Peter Obi will not run for president under its platform.
Ozigbo, who left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2022 to support Obi’s presidential bid, recently defected from LP to the All Progressives Congress (APC) on February 19. He cited his commitment to a greater vision for the state as his reason for leaving.
In his resignation letter, he stated that he informed Obi of his decision out of respect for his leadership.
However, appearing on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, the former governorship candidate said: “I don’t see a future for the Labour Party. I’m happy to live with that assertion, and I would like to be proven wrong.
“Peter Obi, that we are talking about, also left ANPP for APGA, then PDP, and later Labour Party, and I can almost guarantee that if he wishes to run for election, it’s not going to be under Labour Party.
“I can almost guarantee that. I am not his spokesperson.
“Maybe I am wrong, but I am a witness to a lot of discussions around coalitions, and I can tell you my own optimism about that.”
“I told him a few things, not about coming to the APC, but I would like to welcome him to the APC someday if he so desires.
“But here’s the point: I engaged with everybody I needed to engage as much as I could remember to say to them, here are the options.
“I had a meeting with Peter Obi. I said to him, ‘I don’t see myself running for this election in the Labour Party, and I want to make a decision soon.’”
“The day I mentioned to him I was leaving the Labour Party, the next day, I moved to the APC because I had to go and visit the Labour Party and say goodbye to them. And I told them to their face, ‘You hear the things that have happened. I am not proud of them. Even when we had a congress in Anambra State, it was a charade—totally flawed.’”
