A CHIEFTAIN of the Labour Party, Doyin Okupe, says the chances of an alliance between former Anambra State governor, Peter Obi, and former Kano State governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso for the 2023 presidency is dead.
Obi is the candidate of the Labour Party while Kwankwaso is the flagbearer of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP).
“That discussion, or those discussions about a merger, alliance and all that were led by me from our side; it is dead – DEAD and buried,” Okupe said during his appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
“It is not Mr Peter Obi; the Labour Party and its presidential candidate have long since withdrawn from that conversation and it was NNPP that continued to try to benefit from the traction of the popularity of Obi. Out of maturity, I decided that we will not take them on media-wise, so we kept quiet, but they kept going on”.
“The talk for an alliance had been dead for over four weeks,” he stressed. “I am the leader of the team that went to discuss with Kwankwaso’s team, and it was dead.
“The moment I asked them one single question: would they consider it appropriate and okay for a president of northern extraction and Muslim to finish eight years and another Muslim northerner from the next state to take over?
“And they said there is nothing wrong with that; as far as I’m concerned, the discussion was over and it has remained over since then.”
