Soludo-Obi feud pure political vendetta, says Okorie

The presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, has proposed an unusual model of presidential leadership, saying he would spend his holidays travelling across Nigeria rather than abroad if elected.

Obi made the declaration in his Independence Day address as Nigeria marks its 66th anniversary. He said the proposed travels would be part of his effort to see the country firsthand, interact with Nigerians and understand the challenges confronting communities.

“I will not spend my holidays outside Nigeria,” Obi said, naming Zamfara, Borno, Kwara, Ebonyi, Edo and Ekiti among the states he intends to visit.

“I want to continue to see Nigeria. I want to know Nigeria. I want to spend time with Nigerians, listen to them, understand their challenges and celebrate their resilience.”

The pledge followed his recent visit to Sokoto State with his running mate, Rabiu Kwankwaso.

During the visit, Obi went to the Ramin Kura Internally Displaced Persons camp in Sokoto metropolis, where he said he saw thousands of women and children living in difficult conditions.

He said many of the displaced children had no access to education, while mothers and children faced limited access to basic healthcare.

Obi said the situation exposed a wider national crisis, arguing that Nigerians displaced by insecurity were being forced to live as refugees in their own country.

MEANWHILE, the founding National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Dr Chekwas Okorie, on Friday disclosed possible reasons for the ongoing feud between Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo, and Obi. He said the disagreement is purely a case of vendetta.

Okorie stated that Soludo has continued to nurse the grudge against Obi for the defeat handed to him when he ran for the 2009 governorship election of Anambra State, his 2013 disqualification from participating in the governorship primary of the APGA, as well as the tacit support Obi gave to the senator representing Anambra Central, Victor Umeh, in the 2023 general elections.

Speaking for the first time over the matter between the two in a statement he titled “Soludo’s vendetta against Peter Obi must stop now,” Okorie, who decried the scale of attacks and opposition from Soludo against Obi, warned the governor to be “mindful of the Igbo god of retributive justice, the merciless AMADIOHA”.

He insisted that there are families in Igboland still suffering from the stigma of the abominations of their forebears.