The National Vice Chairman (South East) of the Labour Party, Ceekay Igara, has justified Peter Obi’s absence from the recent party convention which was held in Nnewi, Anambra State.
Recall that the 2023 presidential hopeful under the party together with some critical stakeholders of the party where absent.
While many political think tanks are of the opinion that the convention was inconclusive, the South East National Vice Chairman cleared the air that Obi was not qualified to attend; hence declaring the convention successful.
In an interview with the Independent, Igara explained from the provision of the constitution why Obi’s absence cannot hold waters.
“The constitution clearly spelt out who and who should be at the convention and we cannot leave out those who are qualified. Peter Obi is not the president; he is a presidential candidate under our party and our constitution does not say presidential candidates; it says president, former president.
“So if he is a sitting president or a former president, he would have been at that convention. Because Alex Otti is a sitting governor and his vice a sitting deputy governor, that was why they were there. People are speaking ignorantly of the provisions of our party constitution,” Igara said.
” I was at the convention and I know that out of the 38 House members, we had about 17 of them in attendance. The speaker; the only speaker we have was there, the deputy speaker was there and the members of the House were all there. State chairmen and their delegates were all there. And all the National Working Committee (NWC) members were all there. So we don’t have issues with those who are outside,” he added.