By Taiwo Adeyemi

Dr. Abayomi Arabambi

Dr. Abayomi Arabambi,  Chieftain of the Labour Party has said the party is considering fielding the Director-General of World Trade Organization, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as presidential candidate in the 2027 general election.

Okonjo-Iweala was recently elected for a second term as the Director-General of the World Trade Organization. 

Arabambi made the remarks while featuring as a guest on Diamond FM, Ilorin, Kwara State popular Yoruba Language news and current affairs programme “E ba wa da si” on Tuesday, 10th December 2024.

He maintained that the former Nigerian Minister of Finance has the needed experience and exposure to lead the country.

“Okonjo-Iweala has the exposure and experience to lead the country, he is not a tribalised leader like Peter Obi that will put Igbo above Hausa, she has been leading international organizations and playing important roles in the global development”.

Arabambi maintained that the activities of the party 2023 Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi and the Governor of the Abia State, Alex Otti are to hijack the party which they were unable to achieve in their previous political parties”

“What Obi and Otti are doing is to hijack the party which they were unable to do in their previous political parties, Obi tried it in APGA that was founded by late Odumegwu Ojukwu but Governor Willy Obiano stopped him, we won’t allow him to try it in the labour party”.

“The convention that happened in Umuahia is illegal, they wanted to take over the party from us but it won’t happen here, Otti sacked the party state chairman in the State and appointed his brother, when we saw this, we said won’t allow it”. 

“Obi would have given many appointments to himself, a man that failed to build a school during his administration as Anambra State Governor, Ojukwu’s wife was appointed a minister but he never congratulated him”.

“He is the architect of the crisis rocking the opposition Labour Party and responsible for the defeat of the party in the last general election, he failed to donate money for the party, it was the party candidates that were responsible for printing of posters, he said he has nothing but we can see him now donating money around, flying around in private jets”.

“He was the reason the party lost in Ondo State, they changed the party candidate from Dr. Yemi Olorunfemi to Sola Ebiseni without following the right procedure, we challenged their illegality in court and the right candidate was regconised, we will still press a criminal charge against all those involved”. 

On the defected lawmaker from the party to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Arabambi said the defected lawmakers won’t return to the chamber in 2027.

“They have gone to pursue their stomach infrastructure, they were promised chairmanship position of the house committees, APC will use them and dump them”.

“The party gave them tickets free of charge, they should come out and show receipts of their form nominations, imagine the one that was riding ‘okada” he was resuming at the party secretariat every day, begging for the ticket, they are now collecting millions of naira, they are big boys, many other people are on queue in APC already”.

“How many of them can contest and win primary elections in APC, they don’t have money to contest in APC”.