The Labour Party has announced plans to expel its 2023 presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi over alleged “anti-party activities.”
The announcement came during a Channels TV interview on Tuesday with National Publicity Secretary, Abayomi Arabambi, who confirmed that a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting will be convened to recommend Obi’s expulsion, which would then be ratified at the party’s next convention.
“Secondly, let me make it very clear. We are convening a NEC meeting where he (Peter Obi) will be expelled,” Arabambi said.
“You know he was on suspension before, before he now went ahead to do the anti-party activities. You don’t go and join a political party and at the same time, you put your leg in another political party. He knows it is so constitutional for him to belong to two political parties at a time. They have been able to deceive him to their side and there he shall remain.
“So, NEC meeting is going to be called shortly where Obi will be recommended for expulsion and that will now be confirmed finally at our convention in line with our constitution and in line with most political party constitution because when you want to expel an individual who is a member of your party but you know that is not doing things in tandem with your constitution, you go to NEC and you will recommend to expel him and now recommend the final expulsion to the convention.”
Arabambi further accused Obi of engaging in dual-party allegiances and aligning with what he described as “yahoo yahoo coalition.”
“So, Obi will be expelled from our party. He’s no longer a member of our party. It is not within his right to tell us that I’m still a member of the Labour Party and at the same time he will not be hobnobbing, you know, with what we call the yahoo yahoo coalition. We are not going to accept that.”
Peter Obi, who secured over 6.1 million votes, finishing third in the February 2023 presidential election under the Labour Party, together with Governor Alex Otti, are aligned with a faction of the Labour Party led by Senator Usman Nenadi.
In contrast, the faction to which Arabambi belongs is led by Julius Abure, who controls the official secretariat. This faction had earlier suspended Governor Otti, Senators Kingibe and Nwokocha, and others, citing anti-party conduct.