2027: How we plan to reduce Peter Obi’s influence in the south – APC deputy chair
The Deputy National Chairman (South) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ben Nwoye, has expressed the party’s readiness to combat Peter Obi’s influence in the southern part of the country in the 2027 general elections.
He stated this when he appeared on Channel Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Monday.
Obi, who ran for the presidency under the Labour Party in 2023 and won nine out of 17 states in the South, is now with the African Democratic Congress (ADC), where he is seeking to be the party’s flag bearer in 2027.
He eventually came third with 6,101,533 votes (25.40%), behind Bola Tinubu of the APC, who scored 8,794,726 votes (36.61%), and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who garnered 6,984,520 votes (29.07%).
With his sweeping victory, especially in the South-East in 2023, Nwoye, who was elected APC’s Deputy National Chair (South) at the party’s recently concluded convention, said the party will not take Obi for granted this time.
“If you come to the South-East and you see what happened in the last election, it was the grand zero for the Obidient movement, they practically took everywhere, including my state. I mean, they won two out of three Senate seats, I think they won 15 out of 24 House of Assembly seats, and they won seven out of eight House of Reps seat, so it’s huge,” Nwoye said.
“So, when you have the man sitting there and he went to Delta State, took some, went to Edo State, he won, and of course, he won in Lagos State. So, when you have such figure moving around, you should be prepared, and remember he has his two feed on party, on one hand the Obidient movement is there and alive and the ADC, and he said he is going to run. So, when you have that, every vote is going to count, we are going to fight through the system, we are going to make sure we get as much as possible to win.”
The APC chieftain noted that the ruling party will face its biggest challenge in the 2027 election from the South, reemphasising the party’s readiness for the battle ahead.
“Last time it was down south, and this time it is going to be down south because you have different people wanting to be president from the south. You have the Obi himself, of course, you have (Rotimi) Amaechi and some others who have not really declared, but we know that they are warming up,” he added.
Nwoye, who was the APC chairman in Enugu State, is part of the new national executive of the ruling party elected during the party’s convention held over the weekend.
