The Director General of the Peter Obi Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Akin Osuntokun, says recent attacks on the convoy of the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in Katsina State was neither surprising nor unprecedented, but that the violence will not stop Obi from winning the 2023 presidency.
Obi and his convoy were attacked by a mob after his presidential campaign in Katsina State on Monday. But while appearing as a guest on Channels Television on Wednesday, Osuntokun said the attack only showed the popularity of the former Anambra State governor which was making other candidates jittery.
“There are several perspectives from which you can look at what happened there,” Osuntokun, said.
“One is that within the general context of widespread security breakdown in society, on which Katsina is one of the hotbeds, there is nothing surprising to that extent. It’s a state that has been particularly prone to violence.
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“The violence was up to a degree that the governor had to openly ask his people to arm themselves individually, to defend themselves.
“But there’s also the temptation to say that it was a backlash against the successful rally that we had in Kano the previous day. A lot of people were surprised what happened in Kano; it took them by surprise.
“They have become captives of their own imagination that Kano is the stronghold of so-and-so. But the myth was exploded by the turnout at Kano and it was organic and authentic.
“So, there are politicians of a particular bent of mind who are used to thuggery and violence, and will want to stop that momentum, so I wouldn’t put it past those kinds of people to organize kind of mock violence that we experienced there.
“But it wasn’t as if that mob violence – it did not overwhelm the campaign. We nonetheless had a successful rally here. But that will not stop Peter Obi’s ride to the presidency,” he added.
