The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has excluded at least five well-known members of the Obidient Movement, a support group for Peter Obi’s 2027 presidential campaign, from its Presidential Campaign Council.
In advance of the elections on January 16, the opposition party announced the members of its campaign council over the weekend.
However, a number of well-known supporters who were instrumental in helping Obi garner support during the 2023 presidential election were noticeably missing from the list.
Those missing include Aisha Yesufu, a party chieftain; political commentator Isaac Fayose; Moses Paul, popularly known as Dr Mo, a former Secretary-General of the Obidient Movement; Precious Oruche, also known as Mama Pee, a grassroots mobiliser; and Peter Akah, popularly known as Randy Peter.
The absence of prominent Obidient figures is noticeable, given their contributions to the mobilisation efforts that boosted Obi’s support base during the 2023 general election.
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The development has sparked online reactions, with several netizens mocking members of the Obidient Movement, especially Aisha Yesufu.
Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), has taken aim at President Bola Tinubu and demanded that he cease undermining the democracy that elected him.
On Monday, Obi posted this claim on his verified X handle.
This came after Rilwan Olawale, an NDC political mobiliser, was reportedly arrested at his Lagos home. He urged that Olawale be released immediately.
Obi denounced the detention, calling it an assault on alternative voices and democracy.
“Stop destroying the democracy that made you. President Tinubu has remained a huge beneficiary of our democracy and should not brazenly be destroying it by encouraging and facilitating violence,” Obi wrote on his X handle.
He said it was wrong for security agencies to be used to harass and intimidate political opponents.
Obi warned that encouraging political thuggery and violence will set Nigeria’s democracy backwards, adding that if such arrests continue, Nigeria’s democracy would be in danger ahead of 2027.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, to withdraw from the 2027 presidential contest.
In a statement sent by its spokesperson, Dele Alake, the APC Presidential Campaign Council made the demand.
According to Alake, Obi ought to keep his earlier promise to withdraw from the presidential contest in the event that his administration in Anambra State was shown to be at fault.
The council claimed that official financial records had already established the liabilities and urged the former Anambra governor to keep his word.
The statement also criticised Obi, who is now the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), over his recent interview with the BBC, during which he maintained that he won the 2023 presidential election but acknowledged that he had no evidence to support the claim.
“Obi should present verifiable evidence to support his claim of winning the 2023 presidential election, especially when INEC’s official results placed him third,” Alake said.
