The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party ,LP, in the 2023 elections Mr. Peter Obi has disclosed that his party has not reached merger agreement with any opposition political party as some were meant to believe.
Obi who stated this at a press conference on the state of the nation in Abuja on Thursday appealed to all lovers of Nigeria irrespective of political affiliation to unite because it was only in unity that the ruling All Progressives Congress ,APC, whom he said has “mismanaged” the nation’s resources can be defeated.
Obi who faulted the current administration’s claims of fighting corruption, spoke in the wake of speculations that the LP had entered into a merger deal with the Peoples Democratic Party ,PDP, and the New Nigeria Peoples Party ,NNPP.
Although he didn’t admit or deny the existence of merger talks, he was emphatic that there was “no agreement yet.”
The former Anambra State governor described Nigeria’s security situation as unfortunate, adding that Nigerians were needlessly being sent to their early graves on account of banditry, terrorism, and kidnapping-for-ransom.
He argued that the level of corruption in Nigeria remained high just as the cost of governance which has said has led to an astronomical increase in public debt.
He stressed that the situation was worsened by the fact that government officials willfully mismanaged public funds in 2024 through incessant foreign travels.
Recall that the LP candidate and his PDP counterpart, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar lost the 2023 presidential election to APC’s Tinubu.
Tinubu won in 12 of Nigeria’s 36 states, and also secured the enough votes in several other states to claim the highest number of votes of 8,794,726, almost two million votes more than his closest rival Atiku Abubakar of the PDP.
Atiku, who has ran for the presidential seat a record six times, got 6,984,520 votes, while Obi, a first-time contestant, secured an unprecedented 6,101,533. NNPP’s Rabiu Kwankwaso, former Kano State governor, finished fourth, claiming victory in his state Kano. He secured 1,496,687 votes.
