The Labour Party (LP) has stated that there will be no automatic ticket for any presidential aspirant in the 2027 general elections, reaffirming its commitment to internal democracy and due process.
This clarification comes in response to a recent comment by Peter Obi, the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, who hinted at the possibility of contesting again on the Labour Party’s platform.
Speaking at an event in Abuja, Obi said he would “consider running under the LP platform for now.”
Reacting to media reports that suggested the party was celebrating Obi’s potential return, LP National Publicity Secretary, Obiorah Ifoh, refuted the claims, stressing that his earlier comments had been misquoted and taken out of context.
“The attention of the leadership of the Labour Party has been drawn to the news trending in the media that the party is ‘celebrating’ that its candidate in the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi, has declared his intention to run on the platform of the party in 2027,” the statement read.
“I want to state emphatically that I was quoted out of context and therefore, the impression conveyed by the news was erroneous, inaccurate and does not in any way reflect the position and mood in the party.”
Ifoh further clarified that while the party is open to all credible aspirants, including Obi, there is a clear process for nomination, and no candidate would be granted an automatic ticket.
“While we are not opposed to anybody running under the platform of the Labour Party in the 2027 general election, we need to make it categorically clear that the party has a long-standing rule on how its candidates shall emerge—and an automatic ticket is not one of the routes,” he said