Labour Party’s (LP’s) presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, has said he will not attend a debate if his counterparts in other parties do not show up.
The Director General of the Obi-Datti Campaign Organisation, Doyin Okupe, said this yesterday on behalf of Mr. Obi.
Okupe, who addressed reporters yesterday in Abuja, knocked the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, for sending his running mate and Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to represent him at the town hall meeting organised by Arise Television on Sunday.
The presidential candidate of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso, and that of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP), Mr. Kola Abiola, were present during the town hall meeting, while the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, were absent.
Okupe said Obi would no longer debate with those he called surrogates, or running mates, and would back out of any debate even at the last minute should other presidential candidates fail to show up.
He said: “Are we saying we will not debate if other candidates didn’t show up? Yes, we will not. We are setting the standard and the record straight. We are the ones that are coming to change the system. We cannot participate in subversion of the system. That will totally contradict our position of creating a new Nigeria.
“If anybody wants to organise a debate and wants to bring people from the street, we will not be part of it. Whatever you say, if it is agreeable to us and we all agree, we will keep to it and we will stand by it. We must start to do things properly from somewhere and we think it is now.
“While our candidates, Mr. Peter Obi, and our vice presidential candidate, Dr. Yusuf Baba-Ahmed, are prepared at all times to engage other candidates and the Nigerian people in any duly scheduled debates, town hall meetings and any other appearances, as designated and scheduled this election season, they will only be prepared to mount the podium with their peers in this presidential race, and not with any surrogates or diversionary delegated representation…”
“This stand is taken with the utmost respect for the rights and desires of Nigerians to full and direct information and first-hand responses and presentations, necessary for the best assessment of worthiness, capacity, capability, competence, character, integrity and disposition, as required to make the right choice in these coming elections.”