Former Director General of the Labour Party (LP) presidential campaign in the 2023 election, Mr Doyin Okupe, has hit back at the party insisting its presidential candidate, Mr Peter does not share the party’s ideology.

He noted that Obi is not a Labour person and that the party was just used as a special purpose vehicle for the election.

Obi defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) a few weeks to the end of the window the electoral umpire allowed for political parties to conduct their primaries to LP in 2023 and was crowned the candidate of the party in Delta State soon afterwards.

He contested the election and came third according to the final results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who conducts elections in the country.

Okupe subsequently announced his resignation from the party, describing it as SPV, to the consternation of party leadership and supporters.

A war of words ensued with LP leadership describing his exit as good riddance, calling him a “political harlot.”


Okupe restated his stance on Tuesday in what would further irk LP while speaking on Arise Television, insisting that, “The LP for us — for Peter Obi and I — and those in the leadership of the movement…the party was a special purpose vehicle (SPV).

“I have never been a labour person, I have never operated on the left before but we needed a platform and this was the only platform readily available to us,” Okupe doubled down on Tuesday.

According to him, “We thought that if we won the election…there are no fast and hard rules about ideologies. You can always find a shade between the left and the right. You can always move to the centre.

“We were hoping and praying that if we won we would find a way to come to some consensus with the labour.


“Peter Obi is not a labour person. He is not a leftist person, he is a trader, he is a businessman just like me. I am a liberal democrat, I believe in liberal democracy, I believe in free enterprise.

“I am not a social worker. As far as I’m concerned, my membership of labour expired the moment we lost that election,” Okupe re-emphasised.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday, April 22, published the final list of candidates for the Edo state governorship election.

This update was provided in a statement signed by Sam Olumekun, the national commissioner and chairman of INEC’s information and voter education committee.

The Edo state governorship election is scheduled to be held on Saturday, September 21, 2024.

The incumbent governor, Godwin Obaseki, is ineligible to contest in the poll.

With the publication of the final list of candidates for the Edo gubernatorial election, the next activity is the electionering.

INEC’s statement partly reads: “Overall, 17 political parties are fielding candidates in the election. 16 are male while one (1) is female.

“The final list, which also gives the breakdown of the candidates by age, academic qualifications and disability, has been published at our office in Edo State and also uploaded to our website and social media platforms for public information.”

..Aspirants Fault Results

The governor of Ondo State Lucky Aiyedatiwa has been declared the winner of the APC ward primary and the candidate of the party in the coming governorship election in the state

Aiyedatiwa amassed a total of 48,569 votes in the primaries while fellow contender, Mayowa Akinfolarin, polled 15,343 votes, with Olusola Oke coming in third position with 14,865 votes.

He was declared the winner by the Chairman of the Governorship Primary Election Committee and Governor of Kogi State, Ahmed Ododo, in the early hours of Monday, who also noted that the electoral process went ”smoothly” with little skirmishes recorded.

”I can confirm that the direct mode of primary election adopted in the 2024 Ondo state governorship primary elections held in all 203 electoral wards in all the 18 LGAs in Ondo state,” Ododo said while announcing the winner.

The Ondo state governor coasted to victory in 16 of the 18 LGAs losing out on Ilaje LGA to third-placed Oke

Incidents of violence marred the election in Ifedore leading to cancellation of results.

The primary which was held on Saturday saw several of the contestants alleging the elections didn’t take place anywhere


One such Folakemi Omogoroye, a female aspirant described the process as a “complete rape on democracy.” calling for the cancellation

Omogoroye also lamented the absence of election officials and voting materials at voting centres, saying her supporters could not exercise their right to vote.

“I am not going to accept it, and now, I am calling for cancellation and if this is not done, maybe we’ll meet in the court,” she said while threatening legal action if her demand for a fresh and transparent election were not met

Equally, disgruntled party faithful took to the streets of Akure to demand the annulment of the exercise and the removal of Ododo as the committee’s chair.

The protesters took their dissatisfaction to the APC state secretariat in Akure alleging irregularities in the conduct of the ward primaries across the 203 wards of the state.

They described the process as a daylight robbery and urged the national secretariat of the APC not to allow the state to be embroiled in crisis.

One of the protesters claimed no ward primaries were held, insisting that the guidelines given by the national secretariat of the party were not followed as the committee did not distribute materials to any wards.

The party members warned of likely consequences if an unpopular candidate is imposed on them as it could affect the chances of the party in the governorship election