Barring any last-minute hitch, the Labour Party (LP) will no later than Friday, July 8, name and unveil the substantive vice presidential candidate to its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State.
Spokesman of the National Consultative Front (NCFront), Dr. Yunusa Tanko, told newsmen in a telephone interview yesterday, that the Labour Party Campaign Organisation has consulted widely and shall unveil the name of its vice-presidential candidate on or before Friday, July 8.
Tanko noted that alliance talks with the former Kano State governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso-led New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) failed because the NNPP presidential candidate wanted Obi to serve as his vice-presidential candidate, a development he said “is unacceptable” to LP. He, however, said LP and NNPP are ready to collaborate in other areas, noting that contrary to criticisms the LP has more formidable structures than the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the major opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The NCFront, a movement of eminent Nigerians led by Prof Pat Utomi, had in the last one year brainstormed to birth an alternative political platform that will upstage the APC and the PDP in the 2023 general election. It formally adopted LP as the 3rd Force political party in May.
Obi, a former presidential aspirant of the PDP joined LP on May 27 after he withdrew from the race for PDP’s presidential ticket and also resigned from the party in a letter dated May 24. He won the LP presidential ticket at the party’s convention in Asaba, Delta State on May 30.
A former Special Assistant to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, as well as Senior Special Assistant to former President Goodluck, Dr. Doyin Okupe, was named vice-presidential placeholder of the party in early June.
