The Labour Party has hit back at its 2023 presidential candidate and poster boy, Peter Obi, for blaming its internal crisis on President Bola Tinubu, berating the former Anambra governor for failing to provide leadership and causing division.

The party in a statement by its spokesperson, Umar Farouk Ibrahim, reacted to Mr Obi’s interview with Arise TV in which he blamed Mr Tinubu’s government and the ruling All Progressives Congress for the party’s crisis.

Warning Mr Obi to stop blackmailing the party and its leader, Julius Abure, Mr Ibrahim dismissed Mr Obi’s statement as misleading, “daring Obi to produce any tangible or intangible evidence which suggests remotely or otherwise that the Abure leadership of the Labour Party is on the bed with the APC led government.”

The LP spokesperson stated, “When good leaders fail, they should own up to their responsibilities. Obi failed in providing leadership for the party. He should own up to his mistakes. It is therefore shameful for Peter Obi and Dr Alex Otti to continue to accuse the government of infiltrating Labour Party and by so doing de-marketing the party.”

Labour Party spokesperson accused Messrs Obi and Alex Otti of causing the crisis in the party despite the massive support they enjoyed when they respectively ran as presidential and Abia governorship candidates.

“For the records, there was no problem in the Labour Party until Peter Obi and Dr. Alex Otti went to Umuahia, Abia State to create an illegal and unconstitutional caretaker committee that polarised the party. And may I ask, is it the ruling party that sent Obi and Otti to Umuahia to create a division in the party?” Mr Ibrahim said.

He added, “They were also aware that the courts, from the lower court up to the Supreme Court, clearly affirmed the leadership of the party, but Peter Obi and Alex Otti surreptitiously plotted to hijack the leadership of the party by instigating the division. Again, is it the government in power that created the  division or forced them to march to INEC headquarters to exhibit their ignorance?”

The statement followed Mr Obi’s accusation that Mr Tinubu’s government is “instigating and sustaining” problem in his Labour Party, citing the party chairman insulting other party members as an evidence.

Asked why he had not been able to resolve the crisis in Labour Party in an interview on Monday, Mr Obi stated, “This is what you get always in Nigeria because we now live in a country of propaganda and lies. There manufacture it. The problem we have in Labour Party is instigated and sustained by the government of today.”

When asked to provide evidence to back his accusation, Mr Obi made reference to Julius Abure’s statement in which he called Mr Otti a dwarf.

“I don’t need to tell you… When you have a party chairman who calls a state governor a dwarf and dwarf thinking, forget about me. Is Otti weak? OK. I’m weak. Is every other person weak?” Mr Obi said.