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Tag: Labour Party rally

  • Teenager goes viral, gets help for expressing love to Peter Obi

    Teenager goes viral, gets help for expressing love to Peter Obi

    The picture of a young boy standing in front of the moving convoy of the Presidential Aspirant of the Labour Party (LP) Peter Obi, has gone viral on social media as the photo of the week.

    Wearing a pair of black shorts and a grey top soaked with sweat, the boy identified as Yusuf Alabi, spread out his hands as if to receive the presidential candidate, a gesture that triggered a smile from Obi and admiration from bystanders and netizens.

    The event occurred as Obi and his running mate Datti Baba-Ahmed, made their way to the Tafawa Balewa Square for the party’s presidential campaign rally on Saturday in Lagos state.

    Speaking in a short video after the incident, Alabi who hails from Oyo state but is resident in Lagos said he made the move to express his love and support for Obi since we would not be able to vote for him.

    “I will like him to win. I love him very well. I will pray for him if he wins,” Alabi said.

    He added: “I stood in front of Peter Obi’s convoy because I wish I am up to 18 years old so that I can vote for him. But since I cannot vote for him, I came to the front of his car to pray for him so that he will win the election. My parents and my uncles said he is a good man”.

    Reacting to the photo, Efo Kudzo wrote: “I’m not Nigerian but what I’m seeing here looks like freedom for Africa. This movement needs to begin from our sister nation and trickle down to all African nations. We all are in for Peter Obi”.

    Many Nigerians have been moved by the photo which they say is iconic and have expressed the desire to make donations in support of Alabi’s education and wellbeing.

    Facebook user Ifeanyi Onukwubiri, has promised to gift the Alabi N100,00 cash and a smartphone, while popular businessman Pascal Okechukwu, also known as Cubana Chief Priest also promised him support.

    Meanwhile, the photo has been fraudulently put up for sale on Opensea, a Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) platform that allows people to create and sell art digitally,  for a whopping $767.11, until March 11.

    Reacting, photographer Esther Umoh, who shot the viral photo said: “Putting up my work on @opensea without my permission is really not a great thing to do. I don’t know who this person is. Out of 7 siblings, 4 are lawyers. Please act responsibly. I don’t like wahala”.

    Umoh added that she had reached out to open sea to formally lodge a  complaint.

  • 2023: Why I didn’t approve Samuel Ogbemudia stadium for LP rally – Godwin Obaseki

    2023: Why I didn’t approve Samuel Ogbemudia stadium for LP rally – Godwin Obaseki

    Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, on Friday  stated reasons why the Samuel Ogbemudia stadium wasn’t approved to Labour Party to have their rally in the state.

    The Edo-born politician made it known that the 24 hours’ notice they got was too short to approve the use of the venue for the rally.

    He disclosed this while appearing on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Friday, saying that he thought the party was serious and expected so much from them.

    Obaseki said, “Well, there are several venues in Benin for rallies, I heard that they [Labour Party] applied on Wednesday night to hold a rally at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium on Friday morning, giving us one day’s notice.

    “The tracks in that stadium are still under warranty. The pitch has to be maintained in a certain mode. So it is not just another facility you just can go in and use without preparing. If they knew they had a rally on Friday morning, why could not they give more time and notice so we could give them the conditions under which they could use the pitch.”

    Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Obaseki’s party, had used the stadium for a rally on October 22.

    “The same thing we did to the PDP when they wanted to use the pitch. And the only reason why we allowed the PDP rally was because it was used as an opportunity to commission that facility. Otherwise, most other rallies are held in other large grounds around the city,” Obaseki added.

    “I expected more from the Labour Party. I thought they were more serious, you cannot be planning for a rally on a Friday and be giving less than two days.

    “I spoke to my friend Peter Obi the night before he told me he was coming to the state, and we offered him all the courtesy, including security and some logistics, but I did not know they were coming for rallies.

    “For me, the issues did not even come to me. The people at the sports commission knew what to do, and they did it professionally.”

  • Nigerians stage Independence Day rally for Peter Obi in London

    Nigerians stage Independence Day rally for Peter Obi in London

    NIGERIANS in London, the United Kingdom, on Saturday came out en masse to stage an Independence Day rally, showing support for the Presidential candidate of Labour Party Peter Obi and his running mate Datti Baba-Ahmed.

    In Nigeria, an overwhelming number of Nigerians also flooded the streets simultaneously across Akwa-Ibom, Bauchi, Edo, Kaduna, Lagos, in support of the Labour Party flag bearers against the backdrop of Nigeria’s 62 years of independence celebration.

    Dressed in branded campaign tee-shirts and holding Nigerian hand flags and vuvuzela trumpets, a large crowd of supporters sang songs of triumph as they marched around Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, Central London.

    “Give us Obi, Give us Obi”, the crowd chanted as they danced around the Square. In some photos from the scene seen by The ICIR, the celebration rally also attracted some foreigners.

    Some unidentified foreigners join Nigerians to celebrate Nigeria’s Independence Day in London.

    In March, Nigeria’s National Assembly threw out the Bill for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Provide for Diaspora Voting, and for Related Matters, disenfranchising more than 17 million Nigerians abroad.

    INEC’s Chairperson Yakubu Mahmood had argued that citizens of Nigeria living outside the country make considerable contributions to the economy through Diaspora remittances and should be able to vote, as Diaspora voting was consistent with global best practices

    Similarly, Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has said the Commission was already compiling the data of Nigerians legally resident abroad with the hope they will soon be able to exercise their right to vote.

    “The National Assembly is still not interested in Diaspora voting, but we will not relent in continuing to engage with them. We have to vote, it is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when it is going to start,” Dabiri-Erewa said.

    Despite the setback suffered by the Diaspora Voting Bill, Nigerians abroad have continued to show a keen interest in the forthcoming election and have become an important rally point for the major political parties in the country.