Labour Party’s Defeat In Osun Not Final Verdict On Us, Obi Says

Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi has urged his supporters to remain steadfast about the chances of the Labour Party in next year’s presidential election saying the bruising defeat in the governorship election was not a final verdict on the party.

This was as he congratulated Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who emerged the winner of the governorship on Saturday.

In a statement posted on his Facebook page early Monday morning, Obi also congratulated the LP’s candidate and his running mate, Lasun Sulaimon Yusuff and Adeola Adekunle Atanda, “For a hard fought battle and their spirit of reslove and sportsmanship, despite the outcome.”

Directing his message to the “Obidient Movement Family and our supporters nationwide,” he argued that “the outcome of this particular election is not a verdict on our exponentially growing strength nationwide, especially when viewed against the fact that we are barely one month old in the party and we had to contend with forces that have been entrenched in the state for the last two decades.”

The LP scored less than 3000 votes in the election won by Adeleke who scored 403,371 votes, 28,344 more than his closest rival, the incumbent governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, who polled 375,027 votes.

Obi further argued that, the party is headed in the right direction saying, “within this very short period of only a few weeks, the Labour Party has made its presence and political impact felt nationally.

“We must strengthen our collective resolve not to relent in our noble march to take back our country.

“Much work remains to be done, hence we must focus the totality of our efforts now on the forthcoming 2023 General elections.

“In the fullness of time, our message of rescue and recovery will resonate through out the length and breath of the Nation and most Nigerian electorate will buy into our mission to take back Nigeria, for the purpose of rescuing it from continued decline, shift the National psyche from consumption to production and from sharing dwindling resources to creating wealth and frontally combating poverty.”