Peter Obi cancels ‘whistle-stop’ campaign for LP guber candidates, heads to court

Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), says he will not be campaigning for governorship and state assembly candidates of the party.

The governorship and state assembly elections are fixed to hold on March 11.

Obi, in a statement on Wednesday, said he had initially made plans to commence a “whistle-stop campaign”.

The LP candidate, however, said he will be heading to court with his lawyers following the refusal by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow the party to inspect election materials used during the February 25 presidential election.

According to report, the court of appeal granted leave to Obi to have access to all the sensitive materials used by INEC in the conduct of the election.

INEC however asked the court to vary the order, saying the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) needs to be reprogrammed ahead of March 11.

Obi said despite his inability to campaign for LP candidates, supporters of the party should endeavour to vote for them on Saturday.

“I am supposed to commence our whistle-stop campaign for our various Labour Party Governorship and State Assembly Candidates today,” Obi said.

“Initially, my trip was to take me to Nasarawa, Lagos, Enugu, Abia, Delta, Edo, Rivers, Plateau, Borno, etc.

“However, following INEC’s refusal to allow our party to inspect the materials (including BVAS) from the 25th February presidential elections, I am personally heading to the Court today with our lawyers.

“As we pursue due process and defer to the rule of law, I urge all the OBIdients in the various states to continue campaigning for our candidates, namely, Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour in Lagos, Chijoke Edeoga in Enugu, Patrick Dakum in Plateau, Alex Otti in Abia, Ken Pela in Delta,Ibrahim Mshelia in Borno, to name just a few.

“It is also imperative that Obidients vote for candidates with Competence, Character, Capacity, and Compassion. I remain committed and will give more attention to our mission of retrieving our mandate. A new Nigeria is possible!”