Politics
Labour Party Candidates Boycott Peter Obi’s Rally In Adamawa
A serious inter-party crisis has engulfed the Presidential campaign of the Labour Party (LP), in Adamawa State following the boycott of Peter Obi by the Governorship candidate and other candidates.
The presidential candidate of the party, Peter Obi alongside his running mate, Datti Ahmed arrived in Yola Tuesday and astonishingly met the absence of the governorship candidate, Umar Mustapha, including other stakeholders of the party from the 21 local government areas.
The aggrieved members of the party’s which includes governorship candidates, Senatorial, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly Candidates in the state lamented that they are being schemed out of the programme.
They accused the former Secretary to the Federal Government 0f the Federation, (SGF), Mr Babachir Lawal of hijacking the Labour Party and ceding the party’s governorship candidate and other positions to the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Speaking to newsmen in Yola, the governorship candidate, Umar Madawaki said Adamawa Labour Party, LP, candidates have resolved to boycott the party’s presidential rallies held in the state beginning today, Tuesday, January 31, 2023, ahead of the general elections.
Madawaki said that “as a governorship candidate, he is the leader of the party in the state, therefore all arrangements for the party’s presidential campaign were done without the notice of either of the candidates of the party which he alleged that the former SGF has a hand in the scheme to weed them out”.
Babachir was quoted as not recognising Madawaki as the party’s governorship candidate when he said “Who are you referring to as your gubernatorial candidate, I don’t know who’s a candidate “.
Umar Madawaki considered it uncourteous the coming for a campaign rally to Adamawa as a presidential candidate without first paying homage to the Chairman of the traditional ruler in the State.
“Can you imagine! A Presidential rally, to be held in Numan, the southern senatorial district and in Mubi, the northern senatorial district, while it’s only a town hall meeting that would be held in Yola, the state capital, he fumed.
According to Umar, it is customary that the presidential candidates coming to the state would as a sign of respect visit Lamido Adamawa’s palace as the first port of call before proceeding with the campaign, but in this case, the monarch is scheduled to be visited after Numan and Mubi rallies.
He alleged that the planned presidential campaign can only showcase Peter Obi as the LP’s presidential candidate to vote for, while other positions, from the Governorship down to the State Assembly should go for the PDP candidates, describing it as an democratically unhealthy romance.
Umar Mustafa alleged that Babachir David Lawal, who found it uncomfortable to remain in APC made him SGF and that integrity challenges could not get sustained, would not gain entry into the PDP, has bulldozed his way into the Labour Party and is scheming to hijack the party at the state level, deploying ethno religious sentiment as a divide and conquer, to mortgage the state structures and candidates to PDP.
Vanguard
