The Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council has dismissed reports linking its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to a withdrawal from the upcoming general elections as false.
In a statement issued on Friday, the Obi-Datti Campaign Media Office also accused some unnamed political parties of cloning Obi’s image on gift items to paint a picture of someone attempting to sway votes in his favor through inducements.
“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 bill boards speak volume of who is the man to beat in this race.
“Since June 2022, when Obi emerged as the Labour Party’s flag bearer alongside other presidential candidates, the Labour Party and its presidential campaign have grown by leaps and bounds, attracting both local and global attention. The truth is that Peter Obi’s performance has now become the standard against which other candidates and parties are judged.
“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.
Other presidential candidates should have honorably thrown in the towel in an ideal world where merit and other audacious qualifications are respected,” the statement read in part.
The media office also stated that the motivation for creating the report was not unrelated to the desire to distract Obi from the race, in the hope that doing so would give them (those behind the report) a chance of winning.
“What those flying the unreasonable and ridiculous kite are trying to achieve which appeared dead on arrival, is firstly 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, even as a joke, to suggest 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 country’s developing political dynamics, or that they are clear agents of mischief hoping to confuse the polity.
“Given what has been going on 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 bowing out to make way for the revolution whose time has come,” it added.
