By Adesakin Adefemi
The National Vice Chairman of the Labour Party for the South-West, Abayomi Arabambi, has declared that the party’s leadership, including Abia State Governor Alex Otti, has reached a consensus to support President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027.
Arabambi made the declaration during an interview on News Central on Thursday. He said the decision was reached to allow the South-West to complete an eight-year cycle at the presidency.
“Abure and Governor Alex Otti have all agreed in principle that we will support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu because this presidency belongs to the South-West, not to the South,” he said.
He explained that the arrangement was designed to ensure political stability and regional balance. According to Arabambi, the Labour Party leadership settled on backing President Tinubu’s second term ambition following what he described as an intractable crisis within the party.
On the possibility of Peter Obi returning to the Labour Party, Arabambi dismissed the idea outright. He said the party’s 2023 presidential candidate cannot return under the current understanding reached by the leadership.
“Obi can never come back to the Labour Party, because we have an agreement, even with Governor Alex Otti, because of the intractable crisis, because of what has happened in the Labour Party, we have all settled that we will support the second term and ambition of Mr President Bola Ahmed Tinubu only,” he said.
Arabambi also addressed moves by former Finance Minister, Nenadi Usman, to bring Obi back into the Labour Party. He accused Usman of acting as an agent of Obi and argued that her push was driven by the belief that Obi would not secure the presidential ticket of the coalition-backed African Democratic Congress.
“Nenadi is just an appendage of Peter Obi. She’s only deceiving herself. She wants Obi as our Labour Party presidential candidate, and that is not going to work,” Arabambi stated. He urged her to abandon the idea regardless of who was sponsoring it.
“She should perish that thought, no matter whosoever that is sponsoring her,” he added.
The remarks come amid ongoing political realignments ahead of the 2027 general elections. As of press time, neither Governor Alex Otti nor the national leadership of the Labour Party had issued an official statement confirming or denying Arabambi’s claims.
