It’s not True – Obi’s Spokesman
A former Labour Party(LP) Presidential Aspirant in the 2023 general election, Faduri Oluwadare Joseph also known as Fadojoe, has alleged that after working hard to revive the LP and declared his aspiration to contest for the Presidency under the party, Mr.Peter Obi allegedly hijacked the party and collected the presidential ticket.
Speaking in an interview, Fadojoe said that he moved to the Labour Party with his team when the party was comatose and worked towards waking up the party, and rebuilding it but only for Mr. Peter Obi to come a few days to the presidential primary to highjack the system, collected his presidential ticket and sidelined him with his vibrant team in the presidential election campaign.
Fadojoe, leader of Rescue Movement for New Nigeria, however, said that despite what happened, he was still ready to work with Mr Peter Obi with his team to win the 2023 presidential election but Obi and his handlers deliberately and consistently ignored his team despite the vibrancy.
Asked if Peter Obi was truly prepared to win the presidential election, going by the way he and the people around him handled the election, Fadojoe’s answer was no.
“His Excellency Mr Peter Obi was really not ready to win that election. He only grabbed my ticket and wasted it, when he had every opportunity .”
Asked if he was compensated when Peter Obi took over, he said no, stressing that “I spent millions of my hard-earned money towards rebuilding Labour Party and in my campaign towards getting Labour Party presidential ticket to rescue Nigeria from it woes.I foresaw like the ones we are seeing and living through in our country today and when His Excellency, Peter Obi highjacked the ticket, one would have expected him to have refunded part of what I spent or even tell the party to refund at least what I paid for the Labour Party presidential nomination form or expression of intent form.”
” But nothing was refunded either by the party that collected the money from me and turned to force me and others not to contest the ticket with His Excellency Obi, Obi himself who was the direct beneficiary. Well Nigerians will soon hear my steps towards seeking redress,” he alleged.
On his thought about Mr Peter Obi, Faduri Oluwadare Joseph expressed that he had thought also that Mr Peter Obi was a good man only to find out later that he wasn’t the man he was portraying himself to be to the public. “A man that can not be honest with one man can never be honest with 200 miilion helpless Nigerians who were hoping for a better country through him “
He further said he gets so many kickbacks from so many quarters from some Nigerians who believed in Mr Peter Obi but did not know the real man they are supporting,”but glad these days that many are beginning to see more of his deceptive and cunning nature and the incapability and incompetence nature of him and what became obedients movement started as rescue movement.”
However, while responding to the allegations, Dr. Yunusa Tanko,Peter Obi Media Release (POMR ) Spokesman,said “it is amazing that after 2023 general elections, one year plus, a candidate ( Fadojoe )who participated in the primary, not under duress, nobody forced him to withdraw, because even if he contested against Peter Obi in the primaries which I was a member of that electoral team, he couldn’t have scored one vote on that floor.”
“So if you do not have any particular electoral value,in a primary, and here you come one year after, you’re now crying foul play,that shows the level of incompetence and lack of democratic ethos in the person you are.”
“In the first place, you did not contest the election because Peter Obi was contesting the election. You contested the election for yourself and you feel you are popular. So, if you’re popular you run for election on your own.”
‘When you were contesting you paid your money, Peter Obi was just a contestant just like you, and he paid just like you paid.
So, why would you be expecting him to come and monetize you for paying to the party in which you belong? It’s a non-refundable expense that you took for the interest of the party that you belong to. So, in fact it’s a corrupt way of thinking when you think probably a candidate that emerged would come and gratify you.”
“It’s not as if you stepped down for him, Professor Pat Utomi who stepped down for him, you can ask him, not a single kobo was given to him.He stepped down on his own volition and has continued working for the party, and working with the candidate.”
‘So,if you’re to work with the candidate, in this regard it shows that you were the one that’s not actually prepared in the first place, to run for election. You came in just to come and look for money, you at the end of the day somebody dropped,he would now pay you off,you can double what you’ve expended, at the same time put your cronies into the campaign council, thinking that probably there’s money.”
‘It was not a genuine contest that was done by this particular fellow,I think he owes His Excellency Peter Obi a full apology for making this particular unwarranted and unverifiable claims that do not hold water.
It’s quite insulting on the sensibilities of Nigerians. You contested, I contested,you were defeated and you said I should pay you. It doesn’t sounds sensible at all. I’m so sorry, I’m disappointed in the intellectual capacity of this particular individual,” Tanko said.