A former presidential spokesperson, Doyin Okupe, has said he would never support the former Anambra State governor again.
Okupe served as the director of Obi’s presidential campaign until he was forced to step down due to a court conviction for money laundering and later resigned from the Labour Party after the election.
Since resigning from the Labour Party, Okupe has become a prominent supporter of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Okupe had criticised Obi’s comments on how the economic situation offers little relief to the South-West, despite Tinubu being from the region.
In the viral clip, Obi said, “Let us talk about what is happening today. Rice is about N100,000. We are not even sure where we are going to be. ‘It’s our turn’, ‘he is a Yoruba man’—ask the people in Ogun, here is there any place you people buy bread cheaper?”
Okupe while appearing on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, said, “When Obi made that statement, it insulted us. I am a Yoruba man; I left everything and followed Obi.
“For the first time, Obasanjo left his circle of influence and deviated to support Obi.
“I do not regret supporting Peter Obi. But now I cannot do it again. The reason why I did it was because we agreed that a southern president must emerge.
“I was approached that if a southern president must emerge, which zone must it come to? I said the south-east.
“If all these eminent Yoruba people supported you, why now bring us down publicly? It is wrong.”
Okupe also stated that he would never publicly attack Peter Obi, acknowledging his significant role in the former presidential candidate’s political rise.
“I cannot hate Peter Obi; I am sentimentally attached to Peter Obi. Peter Obi was my project, and I am part and parcel of those who built Peter Obi up, I can’t publicly denigrate that or bring down that house.
“But you know, when the sensibilities of some of us are affected, especially when it becomes a zonal matter, I mean when you call the entire Yoruba race out, I am an elder statesman and primarily a Yoruba man.
“If I cannot speak the truth at my age, then there is no point to live. What Peter Obi said was wrong, he said that emilokan, that they should ask people in Ogun State whether they are buying bread cheaper.
“When Bola Tinubu said emilokan, he was not addressing the nation, he was not addressing a rally, he was addressing APC delegates in the premises of Ogun State government who were going to APC convention that they should vote for him.”
