The Director-General, Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Dr. Doyin Okupe has said that the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Peter Obi has surpassed Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 presidential race.
He reiterated that Obi was no longer the third force in the race going by the majority of polls conducted on the forthcoming election.
Okupe said this while responding to scathing comments made by Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo on Obi’s presidential bid.
In a statement titled ‘History Beckons and I Will Not Be Silent (Part 1)’, Soludo said Obi cannot win the 2023 polls and knows it.
Soludo’s statement has generated a flurry of reactions from far and wide.
Speaking during a Channels Television interview on Tuesday, Okupe faulted Soludo’s comment, saying it came from a place of “political delusion”.
According to him, Obi is currently in the race to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari but Soludo’s bitterness will not allow him to see it.
He said, “Ordinarily, I won’t join issue with Soludo, but so that people will not get disinformed by his very unsound judgment of the political status of Labour Party in the Nigerian context, that is the only reason why I will say one or two words.
“He must be living in another planet. I don’t know what is blinding him for him to say that there are only two people in this race — APC and PDP. Even a blind person and a young child of nine years old know that this is absolute fallacy.
“Professor Soludo must be indulging in self-political delusion. Today, 90 percent of polls done say Peter Obi is well ahead of the other contestants. It is no longer news that it is a three-cornered race.
“Even in the three-cornered race, we are no longer the third force. We have now taken over and bypassed the two establishments and these two are now contesting for second and third positions. Professor Soludo’s pronouncement has nothing to do with reality or common sense.”
Okupe berated Soludo over his claim that Obi will only secure 25 percent of the total votes cast in four states of the federation.
He expressed confidence that Obi would sweep the South-East votes in the presidential polls.
“I’m happy that he conceded that Peter Obi will win Anambra state. That is good news. Where he messed it up completely, and it makes the whole thing looks ludicrous, was when he said Peter Obi will get 25 percent in maybe four states of the federation. That is a joke.
“Professor Soludo is a professor of economics, not a soothsayer or prophet. Definitely, he is not too grounded politically. The five states in the south-east, come rain and sunshine, nobody will beat Peter Obi,” Okupe said.
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