Okupe: LP was special vehicle for 2023 presidential poll — Obi not a labour person

Doyin Okupe, former director-general of the Labour Party (LP) presidential campaign, says the party was just a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the presidential election.

Speaking on Arise Television on Tuesday, Okupe said he and Peter Obi, LP presidential candidate in last year’s election, do not necessarily subscribe to the ideologies of the party.

In January, Okupe resigned his membership of LP, citing ideological differences.

The former presidential aide said his membership of the party ended the moment Obi lost the election.

“The LP for us — for Peter Obi and I — and those in the leadership of the movement… the party was a special purpose vehicle (SPV),” he said.

“I have never been a labour person, I have never operated on the left before but we needed a platform and this was the only platform readily available to us.

“We thought that if we won the election… there are no fast and hard rules about ideologies. You can always find a shade between the left and the right. You can always move to the centre.

“We were hoping and praying that if we won we would find a way to come to some consensus with the labour.

“Peter Obi is not a labour person. He is not a leftist person, he is a trader, he is a businessman just like me. I am a liberal democrat, I believe in liberal democracy, I believe in free enterprise.

“I am not a social worker. As far as I’m concerned, my membership of labour expired the moment we lost that election.”

Okupe added it was “unreasonable” for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), his former party, to present a northerner as its candidate in the buildup to the 2023 election.