The crisis rocking the Labour Party seem to have deepened as the campaign council and the party’s national publicity secretary differed on the newly released 62 page manifesto of the party’s flag bearer, Peter Obi, making rounds in the media.
Barely 24 hours after reports of Peter Obi’s manifesto went viral, and controversies have trailed it from within the party over the authenticity of the document.
After news of the manifesto went viral on Saturday, the spokesperson for the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko, was reported to have come out in less than three hours to ask Nigerians to dispel the report of Obi’s released manifesto being reported in a section of the media.
It would be recalled that this would be the second time reports went viral in some section of the media about the purported release of Obi’s much anticipated manifesto.
In the first instance which happened last month, Obi took to micro blogging platform Twitter to debunk the report, saying he would unveil the policy document personally and that the leaked one was unfinished.
However, this time around, Obi’s campaign team has again denied the report that said the Labour Party presidential candidate had “finally released his long-awaited 62-page campaign manifesto”, which contained his proposed plans for Nigeria if elected as president.
Meanwhile, Naija News gathered that the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Abayomi Arabambi, told Punch that the viral document themed ‘Our Pact with Nigerians: Creating a New Nigeria’ being circulated was the original document.
He said, “The document is correct. It was shared on the NWC platform by the national secretary. I am sure Tanko was probably unaware because he is not a member of the group.”
The development follows an earlier allegation by Arabambi that the party leadership had forged Appeal Court’s signature to include names of the candidates for it’s National Assembly list in Lagos State.
The national publicity secretary ‘s allegation was also sequel to reports that the Director General of the campaign council, Doyin Okupe, and 10 other members of the party were sacked over alleged “non-financial membership status, political rascality and misappropriation of funds” by the Ogun State chapter of the party.
However, the spokesman of the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko, countered Arabambi’s claims that the document was original, Raye24reporters had learnt.
Tanko told Punch that there was no iota of truth in the report, noting that unless Obi mandated the campaign team, he remained the only person to officially unveil his policy document.
Tanko submitted that “A lot of people are eager to see the document. But I can tell you authoritatively that Peter Obi has not publicly unveiled the document, aside the one presented at the Lagos Business School. It was a summary of the main document which he released himself. Until when Obi unveils it, please disregard any report you see. He is the candidate.
“Let me say that Obi is the first candidate to start making public the plans he has for the Nigerian people. Other candidates just unveiled a document which they didn’t even stick to.
“Obi was the first person to have an agenda of how he plans to move Nigeria from consumption to producing economy, which he keeps using as a mantra.
“We already have the document but we are yet to unveil it publicly. It is not done by proxy. In fact, I have a copy of the document in your hand. But I cannot release it because he is the only one that has the power to publish it. He is the candidate. People should be patient until he makes the pronouncement. It is only then they can analyse as they want. It is obvious people are too eager for it.”
