The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, has apologised to the party’s gubernatorial candidate in Rivers State, Mrs. Beatrice Itubo, for not visiting her during his trip to the state.
The former governor of Anambra State has also denied saying that the former Rivers State governor, Dr. Peter Odili, was his classmate, clarifying that Odili had left CKC before he entered the school.
Obi was in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital on Thursday for the inauguration of the Nkpolu Oroworukwo flyover.
During his visit, it was reported that he asked Governor Nyesom Wike to support his bid for the presidency in exchange for the governorship seat.
This request irked some members of LP in the state, who were not happy that Obi asked Wike to take the gubernatorial seat and support him for the presidency.
Some of them were particularly concerned that Itubo, known to have been mobilising support for Obi, was in clutches nursing injuries she sustained from a domestic accident when her presidential candidate was trading off her ambition.
Itubo had replied that she only understood Obi’s statement within the context of politics, saying she would never step down for Wike’s governorship candidate.
But in a statement on Saturday, Obi apologised for the oversight, saying he was not aware of the party’s governorship candidate’s sickness.
He reassured Itubo of a cordial working relationship between them.
He said: “My sincere apologies to Mrs. Beatrice Itubo, the Labour Party candidate in Rivers State for an inadvertent oversight. When I visited Port Harcourt a few days back, I was not informed or aware of her sickness.
“On arrival in Port Harcourt, I was welcomed by the Labour Party Presidential State Coordinator in Rivers State and other party stakeholders.“We had a useful meeting and I explained to them the purpose of my visit, which was to respectfully honour an invitation by the Rivers State Government and that I will return for our party’s rally and other LP engagements soon.
“No one mentioned that our candidate was sick, otherwise I would have visited her before or after the event. I had committed to passing through the campaign office no matter how late, and I did at about 6.30 pm.
“My dear sister, I sincerely wish you a very quick recovery and reassure you of our good working relationship. May God Almighty bless you always,” Obi said.
Clarifying his position on Odili, Obi in a statement issued by Obi-Datti Media Office, stated
that, he could not “have said that former Governor Odili was my classmate; I said that he was a great footballer in my school that we all cherished and had a good memory of his football exploits when we entered the school.
“I was in CKC from 1973 to 1978 and Dr. Peter Odili left before I entered the school. He was such a fabulous footballer whose image still loomed large even in our time, especially when my primary school was very close to CKC.
“The truth is that the primary school I attended, Santa Maria school/Holy Trinity School. were both owned by the same Catholic Church that owns Christ the King College (CKC), Onitsha.
“In fact both primary schools were feeder schools to the CKC and a large number of pupils that passed through them ended up in CKC for secondary education,” the statement explained.
Gabriel Emameh in Abuja
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