Former Labour Party deputy national chairman Calistus Okafor asserts that the candidacy of Peter Obi is divisive.
On Wednesday, July 6, Okafor claimed that he had invested N48 million in his legal battle against the Julius Abure-led National Working Committee of the party.
He reiterated the NWC of his faction’s preparedness to begin talks with Obi and said that his claim to be the presidential candidate was still debatable.
Peter Obi had become the front-runner for the Julius Abure-led LP faction.
Read Also: Lagos PDP Debunks Reports About Emergence Of Funke Akindele As Governorship Running Mate
Okafor claimed this in an interview with journalists in Abuja, adding that he was prepared to sell another house in Wuse 2 after selling his home in Gwarinpa so he could keep fighting.
He narrated;
I have read in the news media where Dr. Doyin Okupe was quoted to have said that I was demanding for N48m for the lawyers who have been representing me in court before I would withdraw my case against the Labour Party.
I am however happy that he did not say that I have collected the said amount from anybody or group of people. I have also read the mischievous claim of a group that I had collected N15m draft to withdraw the case I instituted against the Labour Party. This is also not correct.
I am fighting for my right, I’m fighting for justice. Peter Obi left the Peoples Democratic Party because of the injustice carried out against him there. If Peter Obi could dump the PDP for LP in order to get justice, he should consider the case of someone who is looking for justice.
Okafor further dispelled reports of being paid to sabotage the ambition of Peter Obi.
He continued;
I have not been bought over by anyone. I want to let Nigerians especially the Igbo people know that I did not go to court because of Peter Obi. I instituted my case in court on December 21 2021 and 0bi joined the Labour Party on May 29.
“I was in court in January, February, March and April. It was after Obi joined in May that people started saying that I had been bought.
“Obi is fighting to become President while I am fighting to become the chairman of the LP based on the provisions of the constitution which empower me to act as chairman if the chairman is removed or died.
“Obi is an Igbo man like me. He has never offended me. I have no reason to fight him.
“When the supporters of Obi came to me and demanded settlement. I asked where we would start from? I asked them whether it’s about the N48m I had spent on the case so far that they want to pay.
This issue of Igbo man fighting another Igbo man is not correct. Nobody is sponsoring me. Instead of resolving the issue in the LP, Obi is spending millions of naira to hire senior advocates of Nigeria to intimidate me in court, he believes that his money would get him what he wants but we shall see the outcome at the end of the day.”
Although Okafor emphasized that he had nothing against Peter Obi personally, he insisted that the former governor belonged to a branch of the party whose leadership the LP’s constitution purportedly did not recognize.
Following the ousting of the LP’s late chairman, Abdulkadir Abdulsalam, he insisted that the party’s constitution recognizes him as the acting national chairman of the organization.
