Nigeria: LP to Review List of Peter Obi's Campaign Team After Protest Against Some Nominees

14 October 2022

The list of the 1,234-member presidential campaign team was presented by the party at an event on Wednesday in Abuja.

The Labour Party (LP) has agreed to review the list of its presidential campaign council following the criticisms of some persons on the list by Nigerians.

The spokesperson of the council, Yunusa Tanko, disclosed this on Thursday.

The list of the 1,234-member of Peter Obi 2023 presidential campaign team was presented by the party at an event on Wednesday in Abuja.

Among those listed was a retired major general of the Nigerian Army, John Enenche.

Names of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress presidents and members were also erroneously listed.

Shortly after the list was unveiled, supporters of the party, who are largely youth, took to the social media giant, Twitter, to condemn the former defence spokesperson for his role in covering up the Lekki massacre in October 2020.

Despite the substantial evidence of killings reported by PREMIUM TIMES among other local and foreign media outlets during the tragic #EndSARS protest, Mr Enenche said the videos of the Lekki tollgate shooting were "photoshopped."

"These videos were cropped and photoshopped.

"If not that I am not permitted I would have forwarded it to you. Up till this morning, I got an analyst to analyze the video and they said it was cropped and put together," he said in an interview with Arise Television in 2020.

He also denied the presence of army officers at the scene of the unfortunate incident.

List to be reviewed

Mr Tanko, in a text message to our reporter on Thursday night, said the LP would do the needful on the concerns raised by Nigerians.

"The Campaign Council in synergy with the Labour Party has noted all the issues raised on the Obi-Datti Campaign Council list released on the 12th of October, 2022. We assure you we will do the needful and an updated list will be released soon," he said.

The National Chairman of the party, Julius Abure, in a communique issued at the end of the Expanded National Working Committee (NWC) meeting held in Abuja, confirmed the removal of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) leadership from the list.

He said the names of the NLC president, Ayuba Wabba and his counterpart in NUT, Festus Osifo, were erroneously included.

"Labour Party hereby announces the endorsement of the Campaign Council; however, we acknowledge some omissions and misplacement of some names in the Council.

"This will be corrected and a supplementary list released before the inauguration of the Council.

"Also corrected is the erroneous inclusion of Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress members in the Campaign list," an excerpt from the communique read.

AllAfrica publishes around 600 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.