A former presidential spokesperson, Doyin Okupe, has said that he will never attack the former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, publicly because he was prominent part of Obi’s political rise.
Okupe was the director of Obi’s presidential campaign until he was made to step down before the election after a court found him guilty of money laundering. He later resigned as member of Labour Party after the election.
Since his resignation from the Labour Party, Okupe has been one of the strong voices in support of the President Bola Tinubu administration.
As a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, Okupe answered question on a comment he made about Peter Obi recently. According to him, he wasn’t attacking Obi but was correcting him on a comment he allegedly made about Yoruba People.
“I cannot hate Peter Obi; I am sentimentally attached to Peter Obi. Peter Obi was my project, and I am part and parcel of those who built Peter Obi up, I can’t publicly denigrate that or bring down that house,” Okupe said on the programme.
“But you know, when the sensibilities of some of us are affected, especially when it becomes a zonal matter, I mean when you call the entire Yoruba race out, I am an elder statesman and primarily a Yoruba man.
“If I cannot speak the truth at my age, then there is no point to live. What Peter Obi said was wrong, he said that emilokan, that they should ask people in Ogun State whether they are buying bread cheaper.
“When Bola Tinubu said emilokan, he was not addressing the nation, he was not addressing a rally, he was addressing APC delegates in the premises of Ogun State government who were going to APC convention that they should vote for him.”
President Bola Tinubu made the famous “Emi lokan (It is my turn)” speech on June 2, 2022 ahead of the 2023 election following a seeming lack of support from the then President and reported opposition by key members of the Presidency. (Text, excluding headline
(Channels TV)
