Akin Osuntokun, the newly appointed Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, has stated that he will be happy if the five disgruntled governors on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform eventually support his principal, Peter Obi, ahead of the 2023 presidential election.
The governors, known as G-5 Governors are Governors Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State and Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State.
SaharaReporters reported on Tuesday that the G5 had raised another dust in the party with their foreign trip to London, United Kingdom to finalise their decision on whom to back for the presidency in the 2023 general elections.
When asked if Labour Party was talking to Governor Wike and his camp to solicit their support for Obi, Osuntokun said, “It is only my principal that can talk about that. At my level, I don’t know anything about it.”
However, he disclosed that he would be glad if the G5 eventually chose to work with his party.
He said, “Of course, I will be happy if they work with us. It is their decision to make. But regardless of the decision they make, God will see us through.”
“There is this popular saying that nobody can stop an idea whose time has come. And you will notice that those who are empowering my principal, our presidential candidate, are mainly the youth, Nigerian youth that cut across party lines, regional lines, across religious lines; those ones are not affected by the position taken by major political actors,” he added.
Before the disgruntled governors left for London, they said they would not work for their party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
It was learned that the governors who called referred to themselves as Integrity Group are now tinkering with the idea of either throwing their weight behind the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, or the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi.
It was learnt that at a private meeting of three of the aggrieved governors with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, he asked the G-5 to support Obi because no Igbo candidate has been elected president.