The Labour Party (LP) has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of buying opposition political parties ahead of the 2027 general election to pave the way for President Bola Tinubu to emerge as the consensus presidential candidate for all political parties.
The opposition party also accused the ruling party of instigating crisis in other parties, using it as an avenue to either hijack or lure their members, including LP elected representatives into the APC.
Director General of Labour Party Directorate on Mobilisation and Integration, Marcel Ngogbehei, made the allegation in a statement where he claimed to be in possession of information that the APC “seems to have compromised” one of the major opposition parties in the North, and another in the East.
Doing this, the LP said the APC was sponsoring internal crisis within its fold to reduce the strength of the opposition parties.
“The case in hand is the NLC Transition Committee which we suspect is an APC special purpose vehicle to hijack the Labour Party and there’s countless others in various opposition parties,” he said.
Ngogbehei said that the parties that appeared to have been bought over by the President Tinubu-led government are very strategic because they control one state each in their regions.
“The APC and Tinubu are making efforts to turn Nigeria into a one-party system. They are busy, working out machinations and trying to buy up political parties, both in the East and the North, with the aim of weakening the opposition ahead of the 2027 general election.
“Tinubu is trying to replicate what Abacha did by pressuring parties to adopt him as a consensus candidate or field candidate who cannot give them a run for their seat. But this will not work, Nigerians are wiser now. The poverty in the land which was brought by the APC will be a force against the party in 2027.
“Instead of focusing on delivering good governance, the APC is busy finalising schemes to buy up opposition political parties and party members just to sell their unsellable candidate to Nigerians in 2027”, Ngogbehei said.
Furthermore, the Labour Party also asserted that the APC is working hard to use hunger as a weapon to get the votes of poor Nigerians in 2027.
“If you think that the APC is ready for a fair contest in 2027, you are wasting your time. They have succeeded in impoverishing Nigerians so that they can easily bribe them with cups of rice and beans and few thousands of Naira for their votes.
“The APC has not recorded any significant achievement to convince Nigerians to vote for them in 2027, they are most likely banking on vote buying, thuggery and election rigging to win election as they did in 2023, but they will receive the shock of their lives because Nigerians are wiser now”, he added.
Ngogbehei admonished all genuine lovers of a working and prosperous Nigeria to stand firm with the party’s National Working Committee led by Barr Julius Abure and its former presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Peter Obi.
He noted that the pair has been tested and trusted in the 2023 general elections “where they both had a graceful outings and none of them compromised. Bar Julius Abure and Peter Obi are a sure bet for a solid 2027.”
