The chief spokesman of the Peter Obi Presidential Campaign Organisation, Yunusa Tanko, has rubbished claims that his principal betrayed the late Odumegwu Ojukwu.
News360 Info recalls that the leadership of the Biafra Independence Movement and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (BIM-MASSOB) had earlier accused Obi of betraying Ojukwu when he dumped the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
The accusation was made in a statement by BIM-MASSOB Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mazi Mocha.
Mocha said if not for Ojukwu and APGA, Obi would not have become the governor of Anambra State in 2003.
However, speaking in an interview with Punch on Saturday, Tanko insisted that it was inappropriate to label Obi a betrayer for aspiring to move to party with a nationalistic appeal.
He argued that the group should be glad that the LP flagbearer, who is a product of APGA, is now on a national level.
The LP stalwart opined that Obi had to dump APGA because it is a regional party and would not help him in attaining his presidential ambition.
He said, “Obi is not a betrayer at all. In fact, BIM-MASSOB should be happy that Obi is a product of APGA that is now sellable to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
On second thought, I think this particular case MASSOB cited happened when they were all in APGA before 2011. As a nationalist, I was not in APGA but privileged to have followed the proceedings there.
Peter Obi, in this regard, was thinking of a nationalist political party. I don’t see any wrong in that. For someone who wants to aspire to lead this country, he must be forward-thinking.
But APGA has remained a regional party that has refused to spread its tentacles around the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
If you want to move yourself to the national level, you must look for a political party that is nationalistic in view. I think Peter Obi was strategic in choosing the Labour Party considering the fact that it represents the interest of all Nigerian workers, which cuts across ethnic groups and religious lines.
Thirdly, whether there were funds spent individually or collectively when they were in APGA, we don’t know. It could be true, and it might turn out to be false. There may also be a reason why Obi said he didn’t spend money the way politicians are doing now to reclaim his governorship mandate.”
