With eight days to the 2023 Presidential elections, the movement of the Labour Party and its Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, on Friday, suffered a setback in Kano as a coalition of gubernatorial, National Assembly candidates and others dumped the party and joined the All Progressive Congress, APC.
The Kano Gubernatorial candidate, Bashir I. Bashir, who led others to officially announced their defection said they were collapsing their structure to throw weight behind the candidature of the APC Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Bashir said they left the Labour party because they were not consulted or carried along in the affairs of the party.
According to him, “You will recall that on the 27th of January 2023, we made a press release in which we expressed our concern that neither I as the Kano State Gubernatorial Candidate nor any of my colleagues and associates were consulted on important decisions in the Labour Party. Our views were not sought out, our opinions not taken, and our voices not heard. There was a complete absence of a collaborative relationship.
“These grave issues and many other factors necessitated our decision to boycott the Presidential Rally held in Kano. It also became absolutely necessary that we review our position in the party and therefore had to ask our political associates, teeming followers and supporters to go back to their individual constituencies and consult widely on the how, why and when to make our decisions and position known.
“We have just finished our Steering Committee meeting where the feedback from our constituencies was deliberated upon and the following decisions were made.
“That as a coalition of Labour Party (LP) Gubernatorial, Senatorial and House of Representatives, House of Assembly Candidates, Chairman and Members of the Presidential Campaign Council, Members of the Gubernatorial Campaign Council, and Zonal and State Coordinators, we have decided to endorse the candidature of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“We have also resolved to leverage on our existing political structures to work on the mass mobilisation of voters and swinging of votes to ensure his emergence as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the 2023 Presidential Election.
“We shall be known as Game Changers for Asiwaju/Shettima 2023. Our slogan is “Sabon Lale”…Swinging the Votes. We shall return to the fold of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Party,” Bashir stated.
Recall that the state chapter of the Labour Party through it Chairman, Mohammed Raji had disowned Bashir saying he was not a member and Guber candidate of the party as his name was not recognized by the law and not on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC portal.
Vanguard
