Akin Osuntokun, Director-General of the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council in the 2023 general elections, is set to dump the Labour Party (LP) in a matter of days.
Credible sources said Osuntokun, a former media aide to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, is in talks to return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), his original party before defecting to the LP in August 2022.
Osuntokun replaced former DG of the Obi-Datti Campaign Organisation, Doyin Okupe in December 2022 , after he (Okupe) announced his resignation following a Federal High Court ruling in Abuja that convicted him of violating the Money Laundering Act.
The LP has been mired in controversy before, during and after the conclusion of the 2023 general elections. The latest being the power tussle between the party’s national chairman, Julius Abure and the leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC).
Recently, there are talks that Peter Obi, the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections may also return to the PDP following his meeting with Atiku Abubakar, who was the PDP’s presidential flagbearer in the 2023 general elections.
It is unclear whether Osuntokun is joining the PDP as a personal conviction or going there as a forerunner for Obi, who enjoys wide popularity from Nigerian youths, especially the Obidient Movement.
Our source however said Osuntokun never believed in the ideals of the LP or the Obidient Movement but was drafted into the party by former president Olusegun Obasanjo, who was rooting for Obi to become president in 2023.
“I don’t know about Peter Obi but I know Akin Osuntokun is returning to the PDP. His heart has always belonged to the PDP. That was his original party. He was only drafted into the LP after Doyin Okupe resigned. They are both Baba Obasanjo boys and you know the role he (Obasanjo) played during the last presidential election”.
Okupe shocked many LP supporters on Friday when he said among the three major presidential candidates in the 2023 general elections, President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) remains the best.
When one of our editors contacted Osuntokun to react on Okupe’s statement and his likely defection to the PDP, he declined, saying that he won’t speak on the matter.
” I don’t have any comment on that for now” he said.
