• SWAGA doubts Obi’s ability to stop Tinubu in S’East
• Shackle holding down LP has been broken, says Abure

Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, and the National Spokesman for the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Bolaji Abdullahi, yesterday engaged in a tweet exchange over the defection of Peter Obi to the ADC.
 
Obi, in 2023, left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the barely known Labour Party (LP), where he garnered over six million votes to emerge second runner-up in the presidential election.
 
However, the National Secretary of South-West Agenda for Asiwaju (SWAGA), Bosun Oladele, said there was no cause for concern over Obi’s defection to the ADC.
 
According to him, President Bola Tinubu has already made significant inroads into the South-East, adding that Obi’s presence in ADC would not affect Tinubu’s prospects in the region ahead of the 2027 elections.
 
Meanwhile, factional National Chairman of LP, Julius Abure, said the shackles of bondage holding the party down have been broken with the defection of Obi.
 
The exchange between Abdullahi and Keyamo followed comments by the latter on his X handle, accusing former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of plotting to use Obi to harvest votes in a political arrangement he described as deceptive and capable of undermining Nigeria’s fragile unity.
 
Keyamo alleged that the former Anambra State governor was willing to “throw the entire country under the bus” in pursuit of a vice-presidential ticket.
 
“Atiku wants to camouflage with Obi and surreptitiously secure his votes and become President on a flawed template that will damage our fragile unity as a nation,” Keyamo wrote. “Obi is supporting this contraption for selfish reasons — throwing the entire country under the bus for a mess of pottage called a VP ticket.”
 
Responding, Abdullahi urged Keyamo to exercise restraint, dismissing the minister’s comments as premature and based on a flawed understanding of zoning and power rotation in Nigerian politics.
 
In a lengthy post, Abdullahi recalled internal debates within the APC over zoning, particularly during the contest for Senate President after the 2015 elections, arguing that the ruling party had often disregarded zoning when it suited its political interests.
 
He accused the APC of weakening national cohesion by endorsing a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket in 2023, despite claims of commitment to unity and balance.
 
SWAGA’s Oladele said former Atiku is the owner of ADC and has been funding it in a bid to secure its presidential ticket for 2027.

Abure, in his New Year message to party members, said the party had already been in coalition with Nigerians and remains the best alternative to achieving a prosperous nation.
 
According to him, 2025 was a spectacular year filled with mixed feelings, claiming that it was the year LP under his leadership surmounted virtually all distractions by some of the party leaders, which threatened its peaceful existence.
  
“The shackles of bondage holding the party down for more than a year now are finally broken with the December 31, 2025, incident in Enugu,” he said.