The Obidient Movement on Friday says the outcome of the Edo governorship election cannot be used as a yardstick to judge the popularity of Peter Obi, the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections.
The LP’s candidate, Olumide Akpata came a distant third with 22,763 votes while Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared the winner after securing 291,667 votes. Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had 247,274 votes.
Speaking in a chat with TheScrutinyNG, Dr. Yunusa Tanko, Interim National Coordinator, Obidient Movement World wide says as a loyal party member, Obi gave his best by going to Edo to campaign vigorously for the party’s candidate.
Tanko who also praised Akpata for a running an issue-based campaign alleged that the election weas marred by financial inducements and voter intimidation.
“The outcome of the Edo election cannot be a yardstick for judging His Excellency Peter Obi’s popularity. The truth of the matter is that he (Obi) as a very Obidient Labour Party member supported the candidate of the party, Olumide Akpata. With all sense of honesty, the candidate gave his very best”.
“However, we all saw what transpired during the election. The election was held in a very distasteful manner where money, election malpractices and voter intimidation reigned supreme”.
“For us as a group, the Obidient Movement, we know we are solidly on ground and we will continue to push for the right things to be done. This is the best time for us to have electoral reforms which will give us credible elections in the days ahead”.
“As far as His Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi is concerned, he did what was expected of him as a loyal party member and he campaigned vigorously for the party’s candidate. The question should have been: What if he had stayed away from the campaign? What would people have said if he had not come to campaign for the party’s candidate?”
