From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
Labour Party (LP) National Chairman Barrister Julius Abure has said that the party did not spend a dime on the Abuja mega rally held on Saturday to drive support for its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and his running mate, Yusuf Ahmed.
According to Abure, individuals contributed money and campaigns items to fund the march.
Thousands of supporters marched from the Unity Fountain to the Abuja City Gate to show support for the candidates, demonstrating that the the Obi-Datti movement is not an exclusively social media phenomenon.
“The rallies are not surprising; it is because the Labour Party has a people-oriented candidate that will work for the people and that will effectively serve the interest of the party,” Abure said.
“Of course, the people must own the process, the people will fund the process because they say he who plays the pipe dictates the tune. And therefore the people are the owners of the party and that is why they are funding these activities.
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“People are contributing money, N1000, N10,000 and so on to carry out rallies for themselves. People are donating their buildings and the people of Nigeria are gradually owning the Labour Party.
“And of course, you know that the Labour Party is a party for the poor, the artisans, students, market women, the down trodden, civil servants, hewers of wood and fetches of water and the ordinary man in the street. They own the party and they form more than 90 percent of Nigerians.
“By the time campaigns starts, you will see people campaigning for the party. All these movements and activities you are seeing all over, Labour Party has no contribution to it. The people are mobilising themselves, they print the logo of the party themselves, they print campaign materials from their pockets and they are driving the process of the campaign by themselves and that is what we are seeing. The people are now asking questions about how they are being ruled, they want to sack the looters, they want to change the status quo.
“They want to put an end to activities of some people who have stolen from the common purse. The people have always been at the recieving end, but all those scenario are about to change. The party is the voice of the voiceless, and that is what you see in those rallies, that is what is replicated all over the nation.
“So Labour Party is changing the political narratives in Nigeria. This is the first time it is happening. God on our side, knowing that the voice of the people is the voice of God, the destiny of the people is now in their hands.”