A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, and other members of the aggrieved Northern All Progressives Congress camp have countered a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, who said they have endorsed the presidential candidate of the Labour Party for the 2023 polls in Nigeria, Peter Obi, and his running mate, Dr. Yousuf Datti Baba-Ahmed.
The team led by Dogara made their position known in a statement on Friday signed by eight members of the group.
Apart from the former Speaker, others who signed the statement were Simon Achuba, Hon. Albert Atiwurcha, Prof. Doknan Sheni, Mela A. Nunge (SAN), General Ishaya Bauka (retd), Prof. Ibrahim Haruna and Leah Olusiyi.
Lawal had during the week said Obi was endorsed by the group, which fell out with the APC over the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima, after painstakingly reviewing and analysing the alternative candidates.
But in the statement on Friday, the Dogara-led team said: “We want to draw the attention of the general public to the recent position canvassed by our Chairman, Engr B D Lawal as the position of our Group.
“We wish to state that necessary consultations have been concluded, and based on manifestly unassailable empirical data, the group is poised to adopt a position that will be made known to the public at an interfaith event to be held very soon.
“Suffices to say that no one in the group including the Chairman has been mandated to speak to the public about our position at this material time.
“Based on our modus Operandi, our position was meant to be presented to the general public at the event above referred to.
“That has not changed.
“Consequently, the decision to endorse a particular candidate and the statement credited to the chairman are solely the decision and views of the Chairman which he is absolutely entitled to but not that of the group.
“We hope this statement clears all the queries most of us have been inundated with on this all-important subject matter.”