By Austin Ogwuda
FORMER Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign, Dr. Doyin Okupe has confessed that his principal and the Party’s Presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi never believed in the ideologies of the Party but was merely using it as a launch pad to achieve victory.
Okupe who granted The Arise Television an exclusive interview on Monday night which was monitored by The Townhall said, “I am not a social worker. As far as I am concerned, my membership of Labour expired the moment we lost that 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 (SPV).
“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.
The former Presidential Media Aide at various times also faulted the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for presenting a Northerner as its candidate in the buildup to the 2023 election as “unreasonable”.
He jokingly told Charles Aniagolu, the Anchor of the programme immediately after introducing him, saying, “Charles, if you are not my friend I could have asked my lawyer to serve you papers tomorrow morning by 8”, in reaction to the long intro including trial corruption charges he (Okupe) passed through.
“I was never convicted of corruption, I was discharged of all 34 charges. What I was convicted of was money laundering which was not corruption. I was being funded under Mr President’s directive”, he explained.
Okupe, who greatly lost weight which according to him was not intended or deliberate but to to sickness thanked God Almighty for His mercies upon him and recommended shedding of weight to guarantee healthy living.
