The campaign team of Labour Party Presidential flag bearer, Peter Obi, has explained why his principal met with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, erstwhile Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido and former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, in Abuja.

Online platforms and social media were awash with viral photographs of Obi’s closed-door meeting with the three chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party on Monday.

This is the first meeting of the former Anambra governor with his former political allies after he defected from the PDP to LP in May 2022.

The development comes on the heel of claims by Atiku’s media aide, Paul Ibe, that Obi was frustrated out of the opposition party by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, because of the latter’s political ambition.

Ibe made this claim when he featured on the popular online political platform, Mic On Podcast, on Saturday.

Addressing the circumstances surrounding Obi’s departure, Ibe denied that the former VP orchestrated the split.

Speaking exclusively with The PUNCH following Monday’s meeting with Atiku, Saraki and Lamido, the Chief Spokesman of Obi’s Presidential Campaign Organisation, Yunusa Tanko, explained that the closed-door meeting with the PDP big wigs bothered on discussions on how to rescue the ‘soul of Nigeria’ from the clutch of the ruling All Progressives Congress.

He said, “I am not privy to their meetings. But what you are seeing are some of the long discussions we have had a long time ago. It is part of the discussions and efforts to battle for the soul of Nigeria.

“It is not a surprising thing for Obi to meet some of his political allies to discuss the situation of the country. That is the few I can say for now.”

On the chances of Obi returning to the PDP or the possibility of a merger between the Labour Party and the PDP, Tanko said such talks would only remain in the realm of speculations.

“Well, not really. Those are the permutations of individuals. I don’t want to dwell on that. But this is still an ongoing discussion. His destination will reveal itself later. Some of these discussions (Obi returning to PDP) are offshoots of what has been happening since the last election.

“We need to wait and see how these discussions pan out. Let’s hope they bring a positive outcome in the long run,” he said.

An official statement released by Obi’s media team titled ‘State of the Nation and Plight of the Poor: Obi visits Atiku, Saraki and Lamido’ corroborated Tanko’s earlier sentiment that Obi is determined to engage virtually all his political allies on the need to wrest power from the ruling APC.

The statement read, “The 2023 Presidential flag bearer of the Labour Party, Peter Obi has continued to live up to his expressed commitment to the peace and progress of the nation. His abiding devotion is to the emergence of a Nigeria that works for all its people and where the people are quickly pulled out of poverty.

“Worried about the state of the nation and the increasing uncertainty in the living conditions of the poor and underprivileged, Obi in Abuja on Monday visited some top Nigerians, among whom are Former Vice President, and PDP Presidential Candidate in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, the Former Senate President Senator Bukola Saraki and the Former Governor of Jigawa state, Alhaji Sule Lamido.

“At the centre of discussion during each of these visits was the state of the nation and how to reduce the suffering of all Nigerians irrespective of class and location. In particular, the desperate condition of the downtrodden in our midst was highlighted. Of particular interest and emphasis in these discussions was the worrisome situation in the Northern parts of the country.”