Obi’s new campaign DG quits senatorial race on ZLP platform

The newly appointed Director General of the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Campaign Council, Chief Akin Osuntokun, said he is no longer in the race for senatorial election.

Osuntokun was listed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as candidate of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) for Ekiti Central Senatorial District.

But addressing a press conference yesterday in Abuja, where he announced his acceptance to lead the LP Presidential Campaign, Osuntokun said his new role is a “higher order of priority.”

He was announced as the LP Campaign DG on Tuesday, taking over from Doyin Okupe, who had resigned from his position after he was convicted for breaching the Money Laundering Act.

The former Managing Director of NAN, at the briefing said his position as the LP campaign DG is a “higher calling” compared to running for the senate.

He said, “I have abandoned it (senatorial ambition). The campaign office has issued a press release in that respect. What law have I breached in accepting the appointment? What law has the presidential candidate who appointed me beached in appointing me?

“It is a higher order of priority. Joining the Obi campaign is a higher national priority than any other aspiration. As a citizen of this country, who has a realistic appreciation of what we need to move Nigeria forward, you can’t compare an aspiration to be in the senate to the position that I have occupied.  I have no moral burden. 

I am stepping to a higher sacrificial position.”

Osuntokun who paid glowing tributes to his predecessor, Dr Doyin Okupe, whom he said played a key role in giving the campaign council a head start, said, “It is with a deep sense of humility that I accept my appointment as Director General of the Obi-Datti Campaign Organisation. My team and I will work diligently to deliver our candidates.”