The Labour Party (LP) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) has denied media reports that its standard bearer, Peter Obi, is planning to withdraw from the presidential race, JomogNews Nigeria reports.
The LP PCC made this known in a statement on Friday in reaction to reports that Obi is planning to step down for his counterpart in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar.
According to the statement, the LP campaign council stated that its presidential candidate does not have any plan to quit the February 25 election or step down for anyone, describing the report as ridiculous and fake.
It also accused some unnamed political parties of cloning Obi’s image on gift items to paint a picture of one who is trying to swing votes in his favour through inducements.
The statement reads: “Nothing can be more absurd than the fact that 18 persons are in a marathon to pick a trophy and somebody is suggesting that the front runner in the race who is already sighting the trophy wants to step down for somebody behind.
“The fact that other parties contesting for the president have been cloning the LP candidate in their corruptly induced gift items like bags of rice, posters and billboards speak volumes of who is the man to beat in this race.
“Since June 2022 when Obi emerged as the flag bearer of the Labour Party alongside other presidential contestants, the Labour Party and its presidential campaign have increased in leaps and bounds attracting both local and global attention. The truth is that Peter Obi’s performance is now the standard by which other contestants and their parties are being measured.
“The fact that the other parties struggle to associate their own candidates with Obi, even without his consent, says it all who should be associated with withdrawing or discontinuing in the race.
“In an ideal clime where respect is accorded to merit and other audacious qualifications, other presidential candidates should have honourably thrown in the towel.”
The media office said the fake report is not unconnected with the desire to distract Obi from the race, in hope that doing so would give those behind the report possible hope of winning.
It added: “What those flying the unreasonable and ridiculous kite are trying to achieve which appeared dead on arrival, is first to give themselves the fake hope that they are in the race to win; secondly to distract and remove our candidate’s eye from the ball where it’s already glued to and thirdly, to inject confusion in the mind of the public.
“After being confirmed to be ahead by four scientifically conducted opinion polls, it would be laughable to suggest even as a joke that Obi is considering stepping down, for who, for God’s sake?
“But we understand their handicap of living in the past and refusing to buy into the raging idea whose time has come that the most vibrant and vigorous arm of the country’s populace, the youths are resolute and already charged to take back their country and that they have found in the LP standard bearer, Obi the right man for this journey whose destination is already known.
“It’s either that the purveyors of this ignoble news are incomprehensible and unintelligible about the developing political dynamics in the country or that they are clear agents of mischief hoping to inject confusion in the polity.
“Given what is in the political space around the leading presidential candidates since the electioneering, it’s crystal clear that the obviously established filthy and disgustingly dirty candidates should be the ones who should be bowing out to give way for the revolution whose time has come.”
