By our reporter| The alliance talks between the Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) ended on June 15, Victor Umeh, former national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) said on Tuesday.
Umeh, who is vying for a senatorial seat on the LP platform, while speaking on Channels Television programme, Sunrise Daily, said the talks “collapsed completely” as both parties could not come to an agreement on who will be the presidential candidate.
Umeh, while faulting Rabiu Kwankwaso, presidential candidate of the NNPP, and other officials for giving the impression that talks between both parties are ongoing, explained that Labour Party is no longer interested in “every other discussion” with the NNPP.
“We are surprised at the recent media blaze by the members of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) to continuously suggest that they were locked in a negotiation with the Labour Party to have a partnership or arrangement where the two parties will work together in 2023,” he said.
“We are surprised to continuously see this, we had this discussion precisely on the 15th of June, more than three weeks ago. What necessitated the meeting was that the NNPP and LP working together will give a better opportunity for the presidential election to be won. And the two parties set up two teams.
“Myself, Julius Aboreh, the Labour Party chairman who led our team; Doyin Okupe went to that discussion on behalf of the Labour Party; while the NNPP put forward Buba Galadima, Abdullahi Baffa, former executive secretary of TETFUND, and Ladipo Johnson.
“It was a three-man team; we met for long hours, adjourned and we came back. When it became obvious that it had become a dialogue between a deaf and dumb person we called off the negotiation.
“It was on the 15th of June that the whole talks collapsed completely. The Labour Party has averted its mind from every other discussion with the NNPP.
“But these fellows have continued to give the impression that they are still in talks with the Labour Party. We couldn’t agree on the knotty issue of who becomes the presidential candidate. Will it be Peter Obi of the LP or Rabiu Kwankwaso?
“What they are saying is not in tune with the reality of things. If Peter Obi, who is being sought after, stepped down to deputise Kwankwaso, it would have been injurious to his reputation.”
Kwankwaso had as recently as last Sunday while appearing on Channels Television programme Politics Today, suggested that the merger talks between the Labour party and the NNPP are ongoing, insisting that NNPP was offering “a golden opportunity” to Obi to be his running mate.
He further stated that northerners would not vote for an Igbo presidential candidate in explaining the reasons for his refusal to be Peter Obi’s running mate.
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