Obi cancels guber campaign trips, heads to court to fight for ‘mandate’

Peter Obi, 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 of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow the party to inspect materials used during the presidential election.

TheCable reported that the court of appeal granted leave to Obi to have access to all the sensitive materials used by INEC.

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,” he 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.”

The LP standard bearer called on Obidients to vote for candidates with competence, character, capacity, and compassion.

Obi said he remains committed to the “mission of retrieving our mandate”.