LP leadership backs Tinubu for 2027

By Lawrence Agbo

The National Vice Chairman of the Labour Party for the South-West, Abayomi Arabambi, has stated that the leadership of the Labour Party has agreed to support President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027.

Speaking during an interview on News Central, Arabambi, the party’s National Vice Chairman for the South-West, claimed that key figures in the party, including Abia State Governor Alex Otti and factional leader Julius Abure, had aligned behind the decision.

“Abure and Governor Alex Otti have all agreed in principle that we will support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu because this presidency belongs to the South-West, not to the South,” he said.

According to him, the arrangement is based on the belief that the presidency should remain in the South-West for a full eight-year cycle.

Arabambi also ruled out any possibility of the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, returning to the Labour Party.

He said the party had resolved, in view of its lingering internal crisis, to back Tinubu’s second-term ambition instead of reopening discussions about Obi’s candidacy.

“Obi can never come back to the Labour Party, because we have an agreement, even with Governor Alex Otti, because of the intractable crisis, because of what has happened in the Labour Party, we have all settled that we will support the second term and ambition of Mr President Bola Ahmed Tinubu only,” he said.

Arabambi further criticised former Finance Minister Nenadi Usman, accusing her of acting on Obi’s behalf in efforts to push for his return.

He argued that attempts to bring Obi back were futile, insisting the former Anambra governor would neither regain the Labour Party ticket nor secure the presidential ticket of the coalition-backed ADC.

“Nenadi is just an appendage of Peter Obi. She’s only deceiving herself. She wants Obi as our Labour Party presidential candidate, and that is not going to work,” he said, urging her to abandon the idea regardless of who was sponsoring it.

“She should perish that thought, no matter whosoever that is sponsoring her,” he added.