By 247ureports.com
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe has declared that former Anambra State governor Peter Obi will be his only candidate in the 2027 presidential election. “Peter Obi will be my only candidate for the 2027 election. He remains the best man for Nigeria,” he said, according to the statement circulating. 247ureports.com could not find the original venue or date of the remarks, so the quote is reported as attributed.
The declaration is notable because Abaribe and Obi are on different tickets. Obi is the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), while Abaribe, who represents Abia South, is listed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the Labour Party’s candidate for the Abia South Senate seat in 2027. He was picked in the party’s primary in May alongside Governor Alex Otti, who is the party’s governorship candidate in the state. Obi left the Labour Party in 2025 for the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and then moved to the NDC in May, where he was ratified as its presidential candidate. Abaribe was elected to the Senate in 2023 on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and has moved between parties over his career.
The statement draws extra attention against the local backdrop. An All Progressives Congress (APC) aspirant for the same Abia South seat, Paul Ikonne, argued earlier this year that Abaribe “abandoning Obi” showed that the wave behind Obi in 2023 would not repeat in the South East, claims Abaribe has not been reported to accept. Abaribe now faces a crowded field of 14 candidates in Abia South, and a challenger from within the opposition space has publicly urged him to retire after almost two decades in the Senate.
His remarks also come as Obi faces competition for the opposition vote from Atiku Abubakar, the ADC candidate, and pressure from the APC’s re-election drive for President Bola Tinubu. Abaribe’s office had not clarified whether he would formally campaign for Obi in Abia or how that would sit with his Labour Party ticket at the time of this report.
