Nigeria’s fledgling major opposition political party, Labour Party, has explained why senators-elect on its platform have thrown their weight behind the anointed candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the position of the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
Prior to the selection of Senators Godswill Akpabio and Barau Jibrin for the seat of the Senate President and deputy respectively, the leadership of the APC has been wooing its aggrieved members and members-elect from other parties to support the duo for the positions.
Akpabio/Barau Campaign Organisation also known as The Stability Group on Wednesday met with the leadership of the Labour Party and the New Nigerian People’s Party to appreciate them for their support for the APC candidate.
Speaking on the details of the meeting in an interview on Arise TV, the Chairman of the group and Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, said Akpabio and Barau had the support of senators-elect from the Peoples Democratic Party and the LP. He added that 70 senators had signed to support the Akpabio/Barau ticket.
He said, “Right now you see some people from PDP in the South East, people from the Senators-Elect from Labour Party, they have all joined supporting Senator Akpabio and Senator Barau.
“As of today, we have 70 Senators who have signed for us and are attending meetings with us. But we are still moving, today we went to the Labour Party to thank them for their members that are supporting us.”
Reacting in an interview with PUNCH, the Director-General, Labour Party presidential campaign council, Akin Osuntokun, said APC Senators-elect had the LP support due to the unavailability of other parties contesting for the seat.
“They would have taken a lot of things into consideration before they decided to support the leadership of the National Assembly. I am not knowledgeable on what is going on but they must have their reason why they are doing that especially when there is no other party contesting. If there is no other party contesting, then they don’t have a choice.”