Spokesman of the PDP presidential campaign council, Dino Melaye, called on Obi to "come back home" to support Atiku in order to stop the continuation of the APC in government.
In a statement he issued yesterday in Abuja, Melaye noted that Obi does not have the capacity to unite the country.
He also called on the chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Mohammed Buba Marwa, to subject all the presidential candidates to a drug test.
Melaye, who admitted that Obi is depleting Atiku’s votes, claimed that Obi would not win the presidential election because the Labour Party does not have the structure to do so.
He noted that the Labour Party has only 30 senatorial candidates as against the 109 senatorial seats.
He said, "I will start without colouring it. And Nigerians must know that any vote for Peter Obi is a vote for APC because Peter Obi cannot make it. So, anybody that is voting for the Labour Party is actually voting for Tinubu. Anybody that is campaigning for Peter Obi is actually praying and working for Tinubu to become the President of the Republic of Nigeria because if you are voting for Peter Obi, you are depleting the votes of the PDP because Peter Obi cannot make it.
He however claimed that Obi cannot stop Atiku’s victory in 2023.
"The truth of the matter is that the Labour Party only fielded 30 out of 109 candidates for the Senate. So who is going to protect the votes of the Labour Party when even fielding candidates for 109 Senate seats they couldn’t? They only fill that in 30 constituencies. Even the House of Representatives couldn’t field members in every district. "For the House of Assembly, they couldn’t fill up to 50 percent across the country," Melaye stated.
He said fielding candidates for these positions is a basic criterion for measuring a party’s national spread for elections.
He further likened Obi to a regional candidate, claiming that that was the reason why Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe, and Aminu Kano couldn’t emerge as presidents of Nigeria.
He added that Buhari emerged president after he ran on the national platform of the APC, having lost elections three times because he was a regional champion.
"Chief Awolowo was a fantastic leader, intellectually mobile and cerebral, very sagacious. But because he was running on regional grounds, both as an Action Group and a UPN, he never became president of this country.
Azikiwe was another fantastic nationalist, but because he was a regional champion, he was only able to produce governors within the eastern part of his country.
Aminu Kano, a very pious man with all sincerity and integrity, could only win elections with PRP in Kano and Kaduna. Buhari himself ran on regional grounds three times and lost woefully because, despite being the regional champion in APP, ANPP, and CPC, he couldn’t win until he ran on a national platform. When people like Atiku, Tinubu, Saraki, and myself collapsed to form a national party, that was when Buhari could become president. "Historically, Peter Obi ought to know that no regional champion can be president in Nigeria," he said.
Calling on the chairman of NDLEA to subject all the presidential candidates to a drug test, Melaye added that the physical and mental fitness of the candidates is not just essential but a constitutional requirement.
He called on Tinubu to surrender himself for medical fitness, noting that it is a constitutional requirement.
Melaye continued, "I challenge the presidential candidates to submit themselves to a medical fitness examination, including a narcotic examination." I called on Buba Marwa to carry Atiku and Tinubu and collect their blood samples for drug tests because anyone who must be our president must be free of drugs because we are fighting as a nation seriously to battle drug abuse.
"I want to know the mental and physical state of who will be my president." Aso Rock is looking for a healer, not a patient. We don’t want a president who will visit London every week again and cause economic and social destruction for us as a nation.
"I just told you that the constitutional requirement for you to be president of this country is that you must be physically and mentally fit. He should surrender himself to a medical examination for his mental or physical fitness. You need to be fit to be president of this country.
"Even for an ordinary NDA, you must do a medical exam." If you want to join the police, you must pass medical tests. If you want to join the army, you must take medical tests; if you want to join the navy, you must take a test. And this is a man who is going to be commander in chief of all our armed forces put together.
He must also go to medical fitness."
