Former director-general of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, DDr. Doyin Okupe has said that he and the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, never believed in the ideologies of the party.
Okupe made the claim during an interview on Arise Television.
He said the Labour Party was just a special purpose vehicle for the presidential election.
In January, Okupe resigned his membership of the Labour Party, citing ideological differences.
He said his membership of the party ended the moment Obi lost the election.
“The LP for us — for Peter Obi and I — and those in the leadership of the movement, the party was a special purpose vehicle.
“I have never been a Labour person, I have never operated on the left before but we needed a platform and this was the only platform readily available to us.
“We thought that if we won the election, there are no fast and hard rules about ideologies. You can always find a shade between the left and the right. You can always move to the centre.
“We were hoping and praying that if we won we would find a way to come to some consensus with the Labour.
“Peter Obi is not a Labour person. He is not a leftist person, he is a trader, he is a businessman just like me. I am a liberal democrat, I believe in liberal democracy, I believe in free enterprise,” he added.
