The Social Democratic Party presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Adewole Adebayo, on Sunday, disclosed that his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi, is set to follow former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, to the SDP.
Adebayo gave the hint when he was featured as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
In the past few months, Obi’s fraternity with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and other opposition figures had elicited mixed reactions from Nigerians with many wondering if he is dumping his party.
But the former Anambra State governor has repeatedly announced at different fora that he is still a member of the Labour Party.
Adewole, however, insisted on Sunday that he had it on good authority that Obi was heading to the SDP.
He said, “People are joining my party and we are welcoming them. You can see how active I am in welcoming them. The only little issue we have with some of them is to change the culture where if you have not been in an environment where rules are taken seriously.
“Some of them are doing some Boy Scouts, black market operations, we are dealing with that. But we welcome them into the party.
“All these people you have mentioned, El-Rufai, Atiku Abubakar, even former Governor Peter Obi are coming. A lot of people are coming and we will welcome them.”
When asked to clarify if Obi is indeed joining the SDP, Adebayo hesitated before saying he was reliably informed.
He said, “Supposedly until somebody joins, we don’t know. But people have told me and the Financial Secretary (SDP) has also informed me that they are talking. So we will welcome everybody.
“Surely, when we come in, and we don’t become a tower of Babel; if we come in, follow the rules and allow one person to emerge transparently, clearly, without cheating, without criminality the way we did our convention in 2022, people applauded us transparently, no court case, no crisis, no allegations.
“If they can stick to our culture and follow the way we do in the SDP and produce a good alternative to Nigerians, we are going to manifestly defeat the APC and retire President Tinubu to Lagos or wherever he chooses in Nigeria.”
