The Labour Party has announced its intention to expel former presidential candidate Peter Obi over his participation in an opposition coalition seeking to remove President Bola Tinubu.

During a live appearance on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Tuesday, a party chieftain, Abayomi Arabambi, said Obi’s involvement with the coalition while remaining a Labour Party member was “unconstitutional” and “unacceptable.”

“Let me make it very clear: we are convening a NEC [National Executive Council] meeting where he [Obi] will be expelled. It is unconstitutional for you to belong to two political parties at a time. They have deceived him to their side, and there he shall remain,” Arabambi said.

He explained that the NEC would recommend Obi’s expulsion, which would then be formally approved at the party’s convention in line with its constitution.

“Obi will be expelled from our party. He is no longer a member. It is not within his right to claim, ‘I am still a member of the Labour Party,’ and at the same time be hobnobbing with what we call the ‘yahoo yahoo’ coalition. We are not going to accept that,” he said.

In a critical statement, Arabambi rejected claims that Obi was responsible for the Labour Party’s rise, saying, “I want to correct a very wrong notion—Obi did not make the Labour Party; the Labour Party made Peter Obi. It was just a chance of circumstance because of the #EndSARS protests and the failings of past administrations. Nigerians were simply tired.”

He insisted that it was the party’s credibility that gave Obi the platform that elevated his political image in 2023.

“It’s because of our own integrity. That was what gave Obi what he is today. He should be banking on our goodwill, not the other way around. He started the crisis in the Labour Party,” he said.

Arabambi also accused Obi of having an authoritarian approach, saying, “If he can fight party members to do his will, then he is not fit to run the party.”

He emphasized that the Labour Party had only one recognized leadership, stating, “Let me also make it clear: we do not have groups in the Labour Party. We have only one leadership under Julius Abure, our national chairman.”

Arabambi’s comments came after the Julius Abure-led faction of the Labour Party gave Obi a 48-hour deadline to formally resign from the party over his alleged “bromance” with the coalition.

In a statement dated 3 July, LP’s Obiora Ifoh said, “Labour Party is not part of the coalition. Therefore, any of our members who are part of the coalition are given within 48 hours to formally resign his membership of the party.

Labour Party is not available for people with dual agendas or deceptive personas. We will not allow individuals to have one leg in our party and the other elsewhere.”

Ifoh accused coalition members of being opportunistic politicians “interested in relaunching themselves into the circle of power.”

This situation arose after the opposition coalition met on Wednesday, 2 July, in Abuja, where the ADC was adopted as its platform for the 2027 elections.

The coalition appointed former Senate President David Mark as interim national chairman and former Osun governor Rauf Aregbesola as secretary.

The meeting was attended by many prominent politicians, including Atiku Abubakar, Nasir El-Rufai, Rotimi Amaechi, Dino Melaye, Dele Momodu, Gabriel Suswam, Ireti Kingibe, Emeka Ihedioha, and Sadique Abubakar—along with Obi.

Credit: Channels TV

The Senator stated that the FCT minister does not understand the people’s needs and is failing to address them.

The Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory, Ireti Kingibe, says residents of the capital will take action against FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, in the upcoming local government election in Abuja.

Kingibe, while appearing on Channels Television’s Political Paradigm, said Wike is out of touch with the people’s needs and has not been meeting them.

“The truth is that the people of the FCT resent Wike,” she said. “They are not happy with his attitude and his failure to meet their needs.”

She noted that the forthcoming local council elections would serve as a test of the minister’s performance.

“The people will show him who owns the FCT during the council polls,” she added.

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Daniel Bwala, a presidential aide, has said that his former principal and ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar may not have been destined to become Nigeria’s President.

“There is my former principal who believes that he is going to win,” Bwala said during Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday, dismissing the chances of Atiku and other opposition coalition leaders like Peter Obi and Rotimi Amaechi to defeat President Bola Tinubu in 2027.

“In all honesty, I have expressed my opinion that it may never have been destined by God for him to be a president in Nigeria because he has done everything he needs to do to be president and he did not win the presidency.

“2023 was the biggest opportunity that my former principal Atiku Abubakar had. He will never have that kind of privilege again,” he said.

Interestingly, Bwala served as Atiku’s campaign spokesperson during the 2023 election but later switched his allegiance to Tinubu.

Opposition has no alternative policies

Opposition leaders recently agreed to use the African Democratic Party as the platform for their coalition to remove Tinubu, whom they accused of leading the country backward.

However, Bwala dismissed their efforts, saying they have failed to provide alternative policies that could convince Nigerians to support them.

“What I still find intriguing is that this coalition of internally displaced politicians have not been able to summon the courage and come up with alternative facts, alternative policies or alternative programmes.

“Throughout the interview you had with Peter Obi, what I find is that he has not been able to counter or to disagree in the real sense of the word with the policies that we are implementing,” he said.

Coalition will scatter in six months

Bwala further downplayed the threat posed by the opposition coalition to Tinubu’s presidency, predicting that the coalition would not last beyond six months.

He stated that internal disputes over who would emerge as the presidential candidate under the ADC would break up the coalition, ultimately benefiting Tinubu in 2027.

“All this fantasy of coalition, we all know that once there is a phenomenon like that we are going to have a good two to three weeks of all these romanticizing of ‘we have ideas, we can do this’.

“But one of them, his name is Datti (Baba-Ahmed) already sensed the danger that is ahead for them and he said that the problem of theis coalition will be who will be the president because right now, I’m quoting him, ‘everybody wants to be the president’.

“After one month when they sit down, I am telling you on my own honour, in the next six months, that coalition thing will not even be a conversation, they will scatter,” Bwala added.