A former presidential spokesperson, Doyin Okupe, has said he can never denigrate the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi.
Speaking on Monday as a guest on Channels TV Politics Today, Okupe said he is sentimentally attached to Obi, having been a part of his political rise, hence he can’t bring down what he laboured to build.
Speaking against his recent comment on a statement made by Peter Obi regarding the popular ’emi lokan’ slogan of President Bola Tinubu, Okupe denied attacking Obi, but said he has a responsibility to speak the truth on such matters.
He maintained that Obi got it wrong regarding his comment about Yoruba people as touching the emilokan slogan, adding that Tinubu made the statement as an appeal to members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun State to vote for him in the party convention.
“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,” Okupe said.
Naija News reports Okupe was the director of Peter Obi’s presidential campaign until he had to step down following a court order which found him guilty of money laundering. He later resigned as a member of the Labour Party after the election.
