The director-general of his campaign organization, Doyin Okupe, was convicted of money laundering, but Peter Obi, the candidate for president of Nigeria from the Labour Party (LP), has stated that this will not deter him from running for office.
On Monday, Mr. Obi addressed journalists in Uyo at the Akwa Ibom State Council’s secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
The LP presidential candidate declared that despite the conviction, he would carry on with his campaign and let the due legal procedure play out.
“I am hearing about it (the conviction) just like you. I am still studying what is coming out of the court and everything. I believe in the rule of law. It is not going to demoralise me.
“Today, when I arrived Akwa Ibom somebody asked me why I haven’t been using my aircraft because it has been grounded and all that, and I said to him that nothing demoralises me.
“In my life, I have never stayed where they dropped me, otherwise, I would have been where they dropped me before.
“This election, if they like, let them do anything about people who are around me. I will get there,” Mr Obi said.
When asked about the perception that he lacks the political infrastructure to win the presidential race, he reportedly responded that he was committed to topple the country’s current political system, which promoted corruption and increased poverty among Nigerians.
“The structure they have today is the structure we want to destroy. It is the structure of criminality. It is the structure that produced 133 million people living in poverty.
“It is the structure that produced 20 million out-of-school children. It is the structure that has made Nigeria surpass India in infant mortality. It is the structure that will destroy Nigeria and we want to destroy that structure,” he said.
Mr Obi said his priority would be how to secure a united Nigeria and pull people out of poverty.
He said if elected the president of the country come 2023, he would work towards the realisation of the Ibaka Deep Seaport in Akwa Ibom.
“My problem is how to create a future and make Nigeria a productive and not a consuming nation,” he added.
