Politics

2023: Peter Obi targets 15m votes to defeat Atiku, Tinubu

The Labour Party (LP), on Wednesday, unveiled a 1,234-member Presidential Campaign Council, saying the party would secure at least 15 million votes in the 2023 presidential election.

Unveiling the team, the Director-General of the LP Presidential Campaign Council, Dr Doyin Okupe, said a retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Zarewa, would serve as its chairman.

Some of the members are Oseloka Obaze, who would serve as Deputy Director-General and Campaign Manager, and Yusuf Maitama, Deputy Director-General (North).

Yunusa Tanko is the Spokesperson while Clement Ojukwu is the Secretary.

Denzel Ketenbe is Deputy Director-General (South); Isaac Balami, Deputy Campaign Manager 1; and Eyitemi Taire, Deputy Campaign Manager 3; among others.

Okupe, who said it took 12 million votes for the incumbent President to win the presidential election in 2019, stated that the Labour Party already had 15 million votes on ground.

“As we begin the 2023 round of electioneering campaigns, the registered voter population figure has tripled since 2019. More than 60 per cent of the nearly 100 million registered voters today are youths.

“This shows that there are more new voters in the voter register than old ones, and all the newly-registered voters are ‘OBIdients’.

“It is just for us to pray for life till the elections; we will show them. Nigeria is a youthful stream and they are ready to support Labour Party all the way,” the former presidential aide said.

He added that the Peter Obi and Dr Datti Baba-Ahmed LP ticket has been lovingly and organically accepted by the people of Nigeria, because of their robust and endearing records, personalities, vision, policies, and promise.

Okupe said the most remarkable, organic, self-funded movement at the vanguard of the political temperature in present time, the New Nigeria Movement, is made up of the youth population.

He stressed that the movement had taken on a life of its own and had become an unprecedented and formidable force in Nigeria’s national equation, beyond all imagination.

He added that the ascendancy of LP’s presidential ticket to prime position in the hearts and minds of Nigerians had been fuelled by the patriotic zeal, creativity, and shining example in discipline, character and decency of Obi and Datti.

“Unknown to many, a significant number of the youth and drivers of this movement are active members and supporters of other political parties.

“These are people who could not ignore the overbearing superiority in leadership quality, personal disposition, national appeal, private and public service record, and the clear-cut expression of vision and governance solutions of Obi and Datti.

“I make bold to say while the reality is becoming clearer to everyone, that these are the people who will decide the immediate future of this country,” he said.

The Star