The Labour Party (LP) on Friday, at the inauguration of the party’s Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), abandoned its own slogan ‘we don’t give shishi’ as it is now ready to go cap in hand to raise funds for the 2013 general election

National Chairman of the party, Barr. Julius Abure, who decried the high cost of the presidential election in Nigeria, lamented over the lack of funding to drive the party’s presidential campaign for the 2023 general elections.

Abure also pleaded to members of the party and well-meaning Nigerians to assist the party as it experience a serious shortage of the funding required to prosecute the elections.

“Presidential election in Nigeria is very costly, our slogan is that ‘we don’t give shishi,’ but we have to look for money; our presidential candidate alone cannot fund the presidential election,” he said.

This was coming a day before the kickoff of its presidential campaign on Saturday, October 29 in Nasarawa.

Abure pointed out that though Labour Party is now the beautiful bride that all Nigerians are expecting so much from, the PCC to do all needed to be done to lead the party to victory in 2023, however, the greatest challenge before the party is how to fund the campaign.

Abure maintained that the party’s presidential candidate stands out from among other candidates in terms of character, pedigree, intelligence and such but doesn’t have the money to fund the campaign alone.

While congratulating those who made the campaign council, the national chairman, noted it was not an easy task to arrive at the list and urged those who made the list to justify their inclusion.

He added that the OBIdient movement is driven by character, competence and capacity, and as such, they should demonstrate that they have the capacity to drive the party to victory in 2023.

He continued: “The party is competing against parties that have stolen our resources and common patrimony and are ready to deploy it in the election.

“Nigerians have realised they need to take back the country. The massive support and followership enjoyed in recent times showed that the people are ready and determined to take back their country.
We need a lot of funding to drive the process, as the presidential candidate cannot do it alone.”

The Presidential Campaign Council list contains 1, 453 members, which is an increase from the initial 1, 234-member list that was earlier released.

The Chairman of PCC is AIG Mohammed Zarewa, while the Secretary, Comerade Ojukwu. Dr. Doyin Okupe remains the Director General of the campaign council while the Deputy DG North is Alhaji Bello Yusuf Maitama and Mr. Denzel Ketenbe is Deputy Director-General (South).

Former governorship candidate of the PDP in Anambra State, Oseloka Obaze, will serve as Deputy Director-General and Campaign Manager. 

The national chairman and others members of the National Working Committee (NWC), attended the inauguration.

Meanwhile, the Deputy gubernatorial candidate of the party in Plateau State, Engr. Jack Dung Bot, said the decision to challenge his purported substitution as the Plateau State deputy governorship candidate of the party is to test the efficacy of the new Electoral Act as an antidote for electoral impunity.
   
He contended that until the various pre-election cases in various courts are resolved, it would not be proper to begin to exult in the Electoral Act 2022, saying that politicians have continued to operate in their old ways contrary to the legislation.
   
Bot, who spoke to The ALL STATES NIGERIA in Abuja, said it was mindboggling that highly placed individuals in a political party could connive with desperate politicians to infringe on the due process of nominating candidates.

   
Citing the case of the Plateau State chapter of the Labour Party (LP), the deputy governorship candidate disclosed that he was puzzled to see that his name was not on the list of candidates published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on October 5, 2022.
   
“It was a shock and the biggest surprise of my life. I was waiting to see my name published, and that of my boss, the gubernatorial candidate. Unfortunately, what I saw that INEC published was a different name completely
     
“This calls for concern and I wish to take further steps to ask why and what happened. As far as I am concerned, I remain the authentic running mate to Ambassador Yohanna Yilwan Margif. There was no time I was told that I was no longer the candidate.
 
“We followed all the due process, all the delegates from the 17 local governments of Plateau State voted; they all assembled and we followed the due process and the election was held. Ambassador Margif, being the lone aspirant, emerged unopposed as the winner with 100 per cent delegates votes,” he narrated.