Obi-Datti Campaign organization has threatened to steer clear of future presidential debates/town hall meetings where persons other than candidates of political parties are allowed to stand in for the presidential candidate.

Director-General of the Obi-Datti Campaign Organisation, Doyin Okupe said the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi will no longer show up for debates if his counterparts in other parties do not show up.

Okupe, who made this known at a press conference in Abuja, yesterday, decried a situation where candidates were unequally yoked with surrogates for such very important engagements and said that Obi will back out of any debate even at the last minute should other presidential candidates fail to show up.

Okupe said: “Yesterday’s event (Arise TV presidential town hall meeting) was clearly for presidential candidates, not vice presidential candidates. The APC did not turn up and did not send a representative. I respect that. We will no longer be part of any presidential debate where surrogates are sent to represent the candidate.

“We are aware that over 85 per cent of Nigerians who tune in to listen to these debates want to listen to the voice of our candidate, Peter Obi,” Okupe said.

He also described the continued absence of the APC presidential candidate at events organized to afford candidates an opportunity to speak directly to Nigerians about their plans for the country as “disrespectful” to voters.

Okupe cited the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA conference, and the debate organized by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce where Tinubu sent his running mate, Kashim Shettima as representative and his conspicuous absence from the Arise TV Towh Hall meeting, on Sunday, as copious examples of the level of contempt with which the APC candidate holds Nigerian voters.

Vanguard