Simon Ekpa, a spokesperson for the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), and a well-known peddler of claims to fit his separatist movement.
Simon Ekpa, who has been on CDD Election War Room radar for a while, has made fresh claims. Some of his previous claims have been checked here and here.
On March 14 2023, Simon Ekpa tweeted via his verified Twitter handle, saying: “Breaking! Simon Ekpa Vindicated; as C’River APC, LP supporters condemn Peter Obi’s support for PDP guber candidate”
This tweet also has a link to his blog post where he wrote “we warned them that Peter Obi was sent to distract Biafra agitation, now he has scammed them”.
In the blog post, Ekpa claimed that Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate, ignored the Cross-River guber candidate, Ogar Osim, and endorsed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) guber candidate, Sandy Onor.
He called Peter Obi “a betrayer and a scam”.
This has led to some Twitter users’ tweets believing and pushing this narrative. However, CDD Election War Room reviewed this claim, and here is what we found.
Verification
Going through the final list of candidates for Nigeria 2023 Governorship and Houses of Assembly elections, Obu Ogar is found on the list as the Cross River state Labour Party governorship candidate and Ekpezu Obu as the deputy governorship candidate.
However, the leadership of all the support groups for the Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi, in Cross River State, under the auspices of Coalition for Peter Obi (CPO), has endorsed and collectively agreed to support the candidature of Senator Sandy Ojang Onor the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
The endorsement was made clear in a statement issued and signed by the various support groups.
“This endorsement became imperative since the Labour Party in Cross River state does not seem to have a governorship candidate just as the party’s state chairman who doubles as the LP candidate has always described himself as a placeholder and he has not put up any serious efforts to convince anybody that he is contesting any election.”
Furthermore, during a live interview with Arise News, Obi also verified that the Labour Party does not have a guber candidate in C’River and as such will be partnering with some good candidates in those states to ensure victory for them.
“In some places, we are going to work with some good candidates because there are some places we don’t have candidates”.
“Where we are going to have partnership like in Cross River state where we have somebody like Prof. Sandy Onor the senator flying under PDP who we consider an excellent candidate, we will support them”.
“For me, it is about having competent, credible people who have proven integrity and track record and can do well”.
Peter Obi further went on to say that he wants people to support candidates based on character, capacity and confidence even if they are not Labour Party candidates. A report by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) also corroborates this.
Verdict
Here is what we know: Ogar Osim, the LP chairman for C’River, has always described himself as a placeholder, since no one else was running for the office.
Peter Obi has also said that the LP will collaborate with another party that has a viable candidate for governor because the LP does not have one. Together, the LP and organisations backing the LP’s presidential candidate decided to back Sandy Onor.