Lagos – Doyin Okupe, Labour Party placeholder Vice Presidential candidate has said that the party and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) alliance talks had collapsed.
Speaking on Channels Television Politics Today programme, Okupe said the merger failed because Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP insisted on being the presidential flagbearer even when a northern Muslim of same North-West geo-political zone, President Muhammadu Buhari, is about to complete eight years in office.
He said during coalition talks , he had asked the NNPP leadership if it was fair to field Kwankwaso, a northerner, of which the NNPP leadership said there was nothing wrong with that.
Okupe revealed that LP is now looking at a young running mate of northern extraction.
It was gathered that Senator Datti Baba Ahmed, 46, from Kaduna State may be picked as Obi’s running mate.
Senator Ahmed, who has four degrees including a PhD was a member of the House of Representatives (2003 and 2007), and was elected Senator (Kaduna North) in 2011 on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC.
He is the founder and pro-Chancellor of Baze University.
