Politics
Peter Obi’s Candidacy Still Contentious – LP Factional Chairman
A former Deputy National Chairman of the Labour Party, Calistus Okafor, on Wednesday, said he has spent N48 million in his case challenging the legality of the Julius Abure-led National Working Committee of the party in court.
He also declared that Peter Obi’s claim of being the presidential candidate, was still contentious, while reiterating the readiness of his faction’s NWC to open discussions with Obi.
Obi had emerged as the candidate of the Julius Abure-led faction of the LP.
Okafor who stated this in an interview with journalists in Abuja said having sold his house in Gwarinpa, he was ready to sell another house in Wuse 2 to continue fighting.
He said, “I have read in the news media where Dr. Doyin Okupe was quoted to have said that I was demanding for N48 million 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 N15 million 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 meted 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.
“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 dies.
“Obi is an Igbo man like me. He has never offended me. I have no reason to fight him”, he said.
“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.
“On June 30, I went to court with my lawyers including SANs. I have sold my house in Gwarinpa. I am ready to sell another house in Wuse 2 to continue fighting.
“If anyone thinks that anybody is sponsoring me, let that person have it in mind that when I started this battle, I did not see Obi in the picture.
“If Obi thinks he can come to the Labour Party and carry out injustice against me, like the way he was treated in the PDP, he is making a great mistake.
“If anyone also believes that I have collected money from Peter Obi, the person is making a mistake because I’m in court. I have no hard feelings against anybody and I will not allow anyone to intimidate me with SANS.
“My case is coming up again on July 8. I have brought in two SANs. I know that there are people benefiting from the current situation who are making Peter Obi not to see the reality of life. They didn’t allow him to come into reality that he has no ticket with which to contest next year’s election yet.
“There are people telling Obi not to mind me thinking that my case had no merit. He (Obi) is paying lawyers, hundreds of millions instead of him to resolve the crisis in the Labour Party.
“This is a man who wants to change the narratives politically, who wants to do something differently but he could not settle the crisis he met on the ground. He cannot resolve the Labour party crisis and he want to resolve the problem of Nigeria.
“If anyone wants to crucify me for fighting for my right, I’m also prepared to fight on, even to the logical end.
“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.”
Okafor insisted that he had nothing against the person of Peter Obi, but maintained that the former governor was in the faction of the party whose leadership was allegedly not recognised by the LP’s constitution.
He maintained that the constitution of the party recognises him as the acting national chairman of the LP following the sacking of its late chairman, Abdulkadir Abdulsalam.
Daughter of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo, has thrown her weight behind the economic reforms of President Bola Tinubu, saying recent policies have stabilised the economy and strengthened the purchasing power of Nigerians.
Speaking during a media parley on Saturday at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, the former senator said there had been “a lot going on, positively” in the last two and a half years.
“I think a lot is going on, positively. One is the stabilisation of the Naira. What that does is that people can predict how much money they will spend on imports and how much income they will get. So stabilisation of the Naira is a big one,” she said.
“I think that the economic stability cannot be overstated, because when people can predict income and exports, things get better, because then you are not buying something at one price due to dollar instability and having to sell it at a higher price when it changes.
“So for economic stability, there has been progress and there has been some security improvement, mainly because now we have a lot of collaboration going on. There is international collaboration, the President’s visits to different countries for trade, and economic development is rising and that is the key to everything we do.”
Senator Obasanjo also defended the proposed Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, describing it as a strategic investment that would unlock growth along the corridor and ease traffic pressure on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
“Although there was a lot of negativity around the Lagos-Calabar Coastal road, it is a developmental move that will help to generate income as it helps to connect the ports within the axis,” she said.
“It will also help to ease transportation on the Lagos-Ibadan corridor. Right now, to go north in Nigeria, to go east, you have to come through Ogun State on that road.
“Yes, it’s good that they go through, but if they’re going through and congesting that road, it’s also a problem, right? So that road will help us decongest Ogun State roads in ways that will actually help us with development, too.”
On her political future, the former Ogun Central senator made it clear she is in the race for the 2027 governorship election to win.
Her ambition, she said, is neither symbolic nor a placeholder for another aspirant. She intends to contest for the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket and succeed Governor Dapo Abiodun.
Senator Obasanjo pledged to deepen industrialisation in Ogun, citing the growing number of factories in the state.
“The current administration has made impressive moves with industrialisation, the number of factories we have, because with those factories come jobs, opportunity and taxation,” she said.
“But also, those resources can then be turned into products. So we are becoming the industrialisation hub of Nigeria.
“That was how China started. Factories were taken from America to China. So now China is bringing factories here. This is an opportunity for the state to become the Guangdong of Nigeria.”
She identified agriculture as another priority, stressing Ogun’s proximity to Lagos and the ports as a clear advantage.
“Also important is agriculture. We need to do even more in that regard because we do have a lot of land and we are close to Lagos, which is a city where people need a lot of food. Since we all have to eat every day, let us do that,” she said.
“And also, we are close to the port. So if we produce food for export or industry for export, we are in a good position to send products across the world. So focusing on agriculture as we add value to agricultural products will be something for us to do.”
Explaining her decision to join the APC, Senator Obasanjo said political relationships influenced her move.
“One major reason why I settled for the APC is that some of the chieftains whom I knew before from other parties are now with the ruling party. I felt comfortable being among these people,” the former senator noted.
“And one other very important thing that attracted me was that all the people who communicated with me and reached out to me after I left politics are now in the APC.
“So it’s like, if you leave a party and nobody reaches out to you, why would you go back there? Does that make sense? Even in politics, relationships are very, very important.”
Speaking on Saturday on X, Prof. Utomi said, “In Benin, ADC South-South leaders met. Chibuike Amaechi announced interest in contesting for the party’s presidential ticket.
“His request was received, as is the tradition. No discussion took place on the matter. Any representation of endorsement is inaccurate and disingenuous.”
The statement comes after a meeting of the South-South zone on Friday in Edo State, where regional leaders of the party gathered under the leadership of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.
Rt Hon. Amaechi was reported to have formally declared his intention to contest the 2027 presidential election at the meeting.
Chief Odigie-Oyegun, addressing Rt Hon Amaechi’s declaration, said: “In the process, we are glad that our son, His Excellency, Chibuike Amaechi, took advantage of this meeting to formally brief us of his intention to run for the presidency of our great nation.
“We were very pleased to thank him for the respect he has for the leaders of the zone; for not letting loose in his zone, setting up his own personal structure, and for ensuring, like any good son, that he tells his people what he has in mind before he embarks on it.”
He added, “We were pleased, and I can report that a unanimous decision was taken to give him all the support that he needs in pursuit of his ambition,” he stated in a video of the meeting circulating online.
The Senate yesterday urged President Bola Tinubu to remove the Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission, Hussaini Magaji, over what lawmakers described as a persistent refusal to appear before its Committee on Finance.
The resolution followed a motion raised by Senator Orji Uzor Kalu during a session where members of the President’s economic team were present for engagement with the committee.
Tension rose at the commencement of the meeting when agency heads were introduced and senators observed the absence of the CAC Registrar-General, who had been invited to account for the commission’s activities, particularly on revenue matters.
Moving the motion, Kalu expressed anger over what he termed repeated disregard for legislative oversight, accusing the CAC boss of consistently avoiding invitations to appear before the committee.
He said, “Since I came to the Senate, this CAC man has always given excuses that he is in the Villa or going to London. He is not above the law. This man is not coming to the Senate. Look at the ministers of finance and budget. They are both here. We summoned them and they came.
“But this man thinks he’s bigger than the Senate. We’re not going to take that rubbish again. He had refused on so many occasions to honour our invitation to appear before this committee. We have issues with the reconciliation of the revenue of CAC.
“I move a motion that the man should be reported to Mr President and ask for immediate removal because we cannot continue with him. Is that what we’re doing here? He should come and give us an account of what he had done.”
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa, corroborated the concerns, pointing to unresolved discrepancies in the reconciliation of the commission’s revenues.
He noted that despite several invitations, the registrar-general had failed to show up to address the issues raised by senators.
“The registrar-general of the Corporate Affairs Commission has refused on so many occasions to honour the calls, invitations or summons of this most important committee.
“There are only about three committees that are in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Committee of Finance is one of those committees. Sections 88, and 89 have given us these powers.
“And as registrar-general, we have issues with the reconciliation of their revenue. Anytime he is invited, he will give us one reason or another, and he will send junior officers to come and talk to the Senate. That cannot be accepted,” he said.
In a further show of frustration, Senator Adams Oshiomhole proposed that the Senate escalate the matter by withholding approval of the CAC’s 2026 budget pending the registrar-general’s personal appearance before the committee.
Oshiomhole also suggested that the commission be restrained from spending its internally generated revenue without prior approval of the national assembly.
“This senate should decline to appropriate anything in the 2026 budget until we are satisfied that he has accounted for previous money and spending properly.
“And should he spend money that is not appropriated, he should be heading to Kuje prison,” Oshiomhole said.
The motion urging the President to remove the CAC Registrar-General was subsequently put to a voice vote and adopted.
The development underscores renewed assertiveness by the Senate in exercising its constitutional oversight functions, particularly over revenue-generating agencies.
The Corporate Affairs Commission, which regulates companies and business registrations in Nigeria, is a key contributor to non-oil revenue, making accountability and transparency central to its operations.
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